Will ultrathin CIGS solar cells overtake the champion thin-film cells? Updated SCAPS baseline models reveal main differences between ultrathin and standard CIGS

Autor: André F. Violas, António J.N. Oliveira, Jennifer P. Teixeira, Tomás S. Lopes, João R.S. Barbosa, Paulo A. Fernandes, Pedro M.P. Salomé
Přispěvatelé: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico do Porto
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Popis: Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells are amongst the best performing thin-film technologies, with the latest performance gains being mainly due to recent years improvements obtained with post-deposition treatments (PDT). Moreover, thinning of the absorber layer down to sub-micrometre values (ultrathin absorbers) is of extreme importance for CIGS to be even more cost-effective and sustainable. However, electrical and optical limitations, such as rear interface recombination and insufficient light absorption, prevent the widespread implementation of ultrathin CIGS devices. The recent electrical CIGS simulation baseline models have failed to keep up with the experimental developments. Here an updated and experimentally based baseline model for electrical simulations in the Solar Cell Capacitor Simulator (SCAPS) software is presented and discussed with the incorporation of the PDT effects and increased optical accuracy with the support from Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulation results. Furthermore, a champion solar cell with an equivalent architecture validates the developed thin-film model. The baseline model is also applied to ultrathin CIGS solar cell devices, validated with the ultrathin champion cell. Ultimately, these ultrathin models pave the way for an ultrathin baseline model. Simulations results reveal that addressing these absorbers' inherent limitations makes it possible to achieve an ultrathin solar cell with at least 21.0% power conversion efficiency, with open-circuit voltage values even higher than the recent thin-film champion cells.
This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecno-logia (FCT) grant numbers DFA/BD/7073/2020, DFA/BD/4564/2020, SFRH/BD/146776/2019, IF/00133/2015, UIDB/50025/2020, UIDP/50025/2020, UIDB/04730/2020, and UIDP/04730/2020. The authors want to acknowledge the funding from the project NovaCell (PTDC/ CTM-CTM/28075/2017). The authors also acknowledge the financial support of the project Baterias 2030, with the reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046109, co-funded by Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF
Databáze: OpenAIRE