N-Si/p-Sb2Se3 structure based simple solar cell device

Abstract

Sb2Se3 is a p-type semiconductor that has been widely used as an absorber layer in thin film solar cells. For this study, Sb2Se3 was made using the solid-state reaction route, and thin films were deposited by the thermal evaporation method at room temperature and annealed at various temperatures. The crystallinity of Sb2Se3 thin films improved after annealing. The material and thin films were characterized by XRD, Raman, SEM, and UV–Vis spectroscopy to study their structural and optical properties. A simple device structure that can be made using a thermal evaporation system is proposed. We have accomplished simulation work based on Sb2Se3/c-Si hetero-junction photovoltaic cells using SCAPS-1D. In the simulation, experimental data of Sb2Se3, including its band gap, thickness, and absorption coefficient, have been introduced. The simulation is used to extract the parameters, such as back contact work function, electron affinity, and the thickness of the p-Sb2Se3 layer and n-Si layer, which is also varied and optimized to improve the device's performance. p-Sb2Se3 with a band gap of 1.64 eV showed a maximum efficiency of 12.75% at the optimized conditions. As n-Si is commercially available, this simple device structure can have multiple local applications. It can be considered a reliable method for predicting photovoltaic performance for future studies, such as improving the efficiency of Sb2Se3 solar cells or trying out a new tandem solar cell structure using Sb2Se3.