Critical design criteria for silicon nanocrystals downshifting layers enhancement in CIGS solar cells

Ahmed M. Gabr; Alexandre W. Walker; Karin Hinzer

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.8.025502

22 June 2018 Critical design criteria for silicon nanocrystals downshifting layers enhancement in CIGS solar cells

Ahmed M. Gabr, Alexandre W. Walker, Karin Hinzer

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Photonics for Energy, Vol. 8, Issue 2, 025502 (June 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.8.025502

Abstract

Conventional Cu ( In , Ga ) Se₂ (CIGS) solar cells suffer poor response in the short-wavelength region (280 to 520 nm) due to the parasitic absorption in the ZnO transparent conductive oxide and inefficient collection of generated electron–hole pairs in the CdS layer. The short-wavelength response can be enhanced using a downshifting (DS) layer mounted on the top surface of the solar cell. The performance effects of coupling silicon nanocrystals DS layer to a CIGS solar cell are analyzed using numerical simulations. Measured photoluminescence of fabricated Si-nC using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is used to calibrate the model. A 13.9% relative enhancement of the conversion efficiency is observed when a DS layer with a photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 20% is added. The relative enhancement increases to 17.8% when the DS layer has a PLQY of 100%. The results are further analyzed to decouple and quantify the surface reflectance effect and the DS effect using a passive cell. The surface reflectance effect is dominant for DS layers with PLQY of 20% and accounts for 13.6% relative enhancement. Whereas the DS effect dominates when the PLQY is >70 % and reaches 17.1% relative enhancement for a DS layer with PLQY of 100%. Overall, cells with poor UV spectral responses are found to benefit the most from the coupling of a DS layer, albeit only for a very high PLQY.

Citation Download Citation

Ahmed M. Gabr, Alexandre W. Walker, and Karin Hinzer "Critical design criteria for silicon nanocrystals downshifting layers enhancement in CIGS solar cells," Journal of Photonics for Energy 8(2), 025502 (22 June 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.8.025502

Received: 9 April 2018; Accepted: 31 May 2018; Published: 22 June 2018

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