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Modeling of current–voltage characteristics of CdS/CdTe solar cells
Author(s) -
Anjan M. S.,
Kabir M. Z.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201084069
Subject(s) - photocurrent , cadmium telluride photovoltaics , theory of solar cells , optoelectronics , solar cell , current (fluid) , materials science , absorption (acoustics) , diode , voltage , electron , solar cell efficiency , computational physics , physics , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics , composite material
An analytical model is developed to study the current–voltage characteristics of CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells by incorporating exponential photon absorption, carrier trapping, and carrier drift in the CdTe layer. An analytical expression for the external voltage dependent photocurrent is derived by solving the continuity equation for both electrons and holes. The overall load current is calculated considering the actual solar spectrum. It is found that the solar cell efficiency critically depends on the hole transport in the CdTe layer and the recombination current dominates over the ideal diode current. The theoretical model is fitted with the published experimental data and shows a very good agreement.