Enhancement in Efficiency of CIGS Solar Cell by Using a p-Si BSF Layer

Meriem Chadel (), Asma Chadel, Boumediene Benyoucef and Michel Aillerie
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Meriem Chadel: Unité de Recherche Matériaux et Énergies Renouvelables, URMER, University of Tlemcen, BP 119, Tlemcen 13000, Algeria
Asma Chadel: Unité de Recherche Matériaux et Énergies Renouvelables, URMER, University of Tlemcen, BP 119, Tlemcen 13000, Algeria
Boumediene Benyoucef: Unité de Recherche Matériaux et Énergies Renouvelables, URMER, University of Tlemcen, BP 119, Tlemcen 13000, Algeria
Michel Aillerie: Laboratoire Matériaux Optiques, Photonique et Systèmes (LMOPS), Université de Lorraine, CentraleSupélec, F-57000 Metz, France

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Copper–indium–gallium–diselenide Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) is a semiconductor compound belonging to group I-III-VI, with a chalcopyrite crystal structure. CIGS is promising for the development of high-performance photovoltaic applications in terms of stability and conversion efficiency. It is one of the main candidates to rival the efficiency and stability of conventional crystalline silicon cells, due to its high light absorption coefficient, lower material cost, and high stability. The limitation of its use is that CIGS integrates indium (In) and gallium (Ga), which are rare and expensive materials. The amount of these materials in the CIGS cell can be reduced by optimizing the thickness of the absorber. We show that the introduction of a layer of highly doped silicon in the structure of the solar cell between the absorber layer and the back surface field layer effectively allows for decreasing the thickness of the absorber. Within the same objective, we focus on the danger of cadmium in the CdS buffer layer. In the first optimizations, we replaced the n-type CdS buffer layer with a n-type Zn(O,S) buffer layer. For this work, we used a one-dimensional simulation program, named Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator in one Dimension (SCAPS-1D), to investigate this new CIGS solar cell structure. After optimization, a maximum conversion efficiency of 24.43% was achieved with a 0.2 μm CIGS absorber layer and a 1 µm Si BSF layer.

Keywords: ultra-thin CIGS; Si BSF layer; graded absorber layer; Zn(O,S) buffer layer (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: 2023
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