Electrical and optical parameter-based numerical simulation of high-performance CdTe, CIGS, and CZTS solar cells
Authors
Abstract
The market for thin-film solar cells is gradually increasing and is expected to grow to 27.11 billion dollars by 2030. The most extensively researched thin film technologies based on simulation right now include solar cells made of Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS), and Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (CZTS). This work aims to use free software that does accurate simulation using the electrical and optical parameters (absorption coefficients) published in the literature. Moreover, to optimize efficiency, numerical simulation of all the solar cells has been done for different buffer layers (Cadmium Sulfide (CdS), Zinc Sulfide (ZnS)) and transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layers (Aluminum Zinc Oxide (AZO), and Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)). To assess the performance of the solar cells, changes have been made in the thickness of TCO layers and the alteration of doping concentrations of buffer layers and absorber layers. The simulation shows that 0.1 μm is the best TCO thickness. Furthermore, the AZO layer output outperforms the ITO layer in the simulation. It has also been investigated how employing a zinc telluride (ZnTe)-based back-surface reflector (BSR) layer will affect the results. This work includes representations of all the solar cell’s open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current density (Jsc), maximum power (Pm), fill factor (FF), and photovoltaic efficiencies. The simulation’s findings could be useful in the creation and comprehension of high-efficiency thin film solar cells.
