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Two‐dimensional simulation of thin‐film silicon solar cells with innovative device structures
Author(s) -
Goldbach M.,
Meyer Th.,
Brendel R.,
Rau U.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
progress in photovoltaics: research and applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.286
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1099-159X
pISSN - 1062-7995
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-159x(199903/04)7:2<85::aid-pip243>3.0.co;2-q
Subject(s) - silicon , materials science , optoelectronics , solar cell , recombination , charge carrier , current density , carrier lifetime , thin film , layer (electronics) , p–n junction , optics , nanotechnology , chemistry , physics , semiconductor , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , gene
We investigate the optical and electrical properties of thin‐film silicon solar cells by means of numerical simulations. The optical design under investigation is the encapsulated‐V texture, which is capable of absorbing sunlight corresponding to a maximum short‐circuit current density of 35 mA cm −2 . Because the layer thickness can be restricted to only 4 μm, the encapsulated‐V structure also provides a good collection efficiency for photogenerated charge carriers. The results for our simulations suggest that practical efficiencies above 12% can be expected for Si material with a minority carrier lifetime as low as 10 ns. Increased lifetimes of 100 ns allow for about 14% efficiency. The benefit of multiple junctions within the device structure strongly depends on surface recombination. The efficiency of a single‐junction cell can be improved by more the 3% absolute with a multi‐junction device if the surface combination velocity is as high as 10 5 cm s −1 . For moderate surface recombination, the gain is only 1%. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.