Theoretical analysis of amorphous silicon solar cells: Effects of interface recombination

Abstract

The carrier continuity equations for both holes and electrons have been solved in amorphous Si (a-Si) p-i-n solar cells, including the diffusion term, hole-electron recombination term represented by a Shockley–Read model, and the interface recombination effect. Furthermore, the characteristics illuminated through the p and n layers have been calculated and compared. It is shown that when the i layer is intrinsic, the fill factors obtained by illuminating through the p and n layer are almost the same and both are more than 0.6. Furthermore, we found that the fill factor strongly depends on the interface recombination and a fill factor of more than 0.7 can be obtained by using heterojunction such as a-SiC:H/a-Si:H to decrease the interface recombination effect.