Phototransistor Behavior in CIGS Solar Cells and the Effect of the Back Contact Barrier

Ricardo Vidal Lorbada, Thomas Walter, David Fuertes Marrón, Dennis Muecke, Tetiana Lavrenko, Oliver Salomon and Raymund Schaeffler
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Ricardo Vidal Lorbada: Instituto de Energía Solar—ETSIT, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avenida Complutense 30, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Thomas Walter: Institute of Mechatronics and Medical Engineering, Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Albert-Einstein-Allee 55, 89081 Ulm, Germany
David Fuertes Marrón: Instituto de Energía Solar—ETSIT, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avenida Complutense 30, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Dennis Muecke: Institute of Mechatronics and Medical Engineering, Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Albert-Einstein-Allee 55, 89081 Ulm, Germany
Tetiana Lavrenko: Institute of Mechatronics and Medical Engineering, Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Albert-Einstein-Allee 55, 89081 Ulm, Germany
Oliver Salomon: Zentrum für Sonnenenergie und Wasserstoff, Meitnerstr. 1, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany
Raymund Schaeffler: Nice Solar Energy GmbH, Alfred-Leikam-Str. 25, 74523 Schwäbisch Hall, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: In this paper, the impact of the back contact barrier on the performance of Cu (In, Ga) Se 2 solar cells is addressed. This effect is clearly visible at lower temperatures, but it also influences the fundamental parameters of a solar cell, such as open-circuit voltage, fill factor and the efficiency at normal operation conditions. A phototransistor model was proposed in previous works and could satisfactorily explain specific effects associated with the back contact barrier, such as the dependence of the saturated current in the forward bias on the illumination level. The effect of this contribution is also studied in this research in the context of metastable parameter drift, typical for Cu (In, Ga) Se 2 thin-film solar cells, as a consequence of different bias or light soaking treatments under high-temperature conditions. The impact of the back contact barrier on Cu (In, Ga) Se 2 thin-film solar cells is analyzed based on experimental measurements as well as numerical simulations with Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD). A barrier-lowering model for the molybdenum/Cu (In, Ga) Se 2 Schottky interface was proposed to reach a better agreement between the simulations and the experimental results. Thus, in this work, the phototransistor behavior is discussed further in the context of metastabilities supported by numerical simulations.

Keywords: photovoltaics; thin-films; CIGS; back contact; barrier; phototransistor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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