MULTI-SCALE SIMULATION OF GRAIN BOUNDARY STRUCTURE EFFECTS IN POLY-SiTHIN FILM SOLAR CELL

Chengxiang Li (), Wenlai Huang (), Chaofeng Hou () and Wei Ge ()
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Chengxiang Li: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. O. Box 353, P. R. China
Wenlai Huang: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. O. Box 353, P. R. China
Chaofeng Hou: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. O. Box 353, P. R. China
Wei Ge: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. O. Box 353, P. R. China

International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), 2013, vol. 24, issue 07, 1-12

Abstract: The atomic structures of grain boundary (GB) and their effect on the performance of poly-Sithin film solar cell are studied by multi-scale simulations. First, the atomic structures of various GBs are calculated using molecular dynamics. Subsequently, the energy band diagram are obtained byab-initiocalculations. Then, finite difference method is performed to obtain solar cell performance. The results show that the Σ5 (twist) GB can greatly enhance the carriers recombination and results in small short-circuit current density (JSC) and open-circuit voltage (VOC). However, the Σ17 (twist and tilt) GBs have little influence on the cell performance. Also revealed in the simulations is that the GB near thep–njunction leads to very smallJSCandVOC. When the distance between GB andp–njunction increases from about 1.10 μm to 3.65 μm, the conversion efficiency increases by about 29%. The thickness effect of solar cell containing the Σ5 (twist) GB on the cell performance is also studied. The results show that the conversion efficiency andJSCincrease rapidly as the thickness increases from about 5.2 μm to 40 μm. When the thickness ranges from about 40 μm to 70 μm, the efficiency and theJSCboth increase gradually and reach their own peak values at about 70 μm. When the thickness exceeds 70 μm, the efficiency andJSCboth decrease gradually. However, theVOCkeeps increasing with increase in thickness. The effects of GB on the carrier transport and recombination processes are discussed to understand the above results.

Keywords: Solar cell; grain boundary; photovoltaic conversion; multi-scale simulation; 88.40.hj; 73.50.Gr; 73.61.Le; 61.72.Mm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1142/S0129183113500459

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