Solar cell material based on the optimum values of key parameters using PC1D

Abstract

In this paper, monocrystalline solar cell with different materials are analyzed and studied. Here, the solar cell is simulated for a single layer. The different materials used in our study are the semiconducting materials from group III-V semiconductors which are silicon (Si), Germanium (Ge), Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) and Indium Gallium Phosphide (InGaP). The monocrystalline solar cell simulation was done using PC1D software. The influence of different solar cell parameters, with their effects on efficiency, has been investigated. Parameters such as base thickness, emitter thickness, p-type and n-type doping concentrations are varied for different semiconductor materials. The chapter shows that the optimum magnitudes of base thickness and emitter thickness are $0.01 \mu \mathrm{m}$ and $1000 \mu \mathrm{m}$ respectively. And Indium Gallium Arsenide has the highest efficiency with a value of 19.37% for $1000 \mu \mathrm{m}$ base thickness and 34.31% for $0.01 \mu \mathrm{m}$ emitter thickness. It is also seen that the optimum value of n-type doping concentration is of the order $10^{17}/cm^{3}$ and p-type doping concentration is of the order $10^{17} /cm^{3}$ and with this optimum value, Indium Gallium Phosphide has the highest efficiency of 25.42% for p-type doping concentration and 22.18% for n-type doping concentration respectively. The effect of different antireflection coating (ARC) layers is also studied. It is shown that silicone nitrate is the best ARC layer with the maximum efficiency and in particular Indium Gallium Phosphide has the highest efficiency of 21.11%.