Numerical Investigations and Analysis of Cu2ZnSnS4 Based Solar Cells by SCAPS-1D

This paper reports numerical investigation, using SCAPS-1D program, of the influence of Cu2ZnSnS4 (the so-called CZTS) material features such as thickness, holes, and defects densities on the performances of ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/CdS/CZTS/Mo solar cells structure. We found that the electrical parameters are...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: M. Djinkwi Wanda, S. Ouédraogo, F. Tchoffo, F. Zougmoré, J. M. B. Ndjaka
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2016-01-01
Series:International Journal of Photoenergy
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/2152018
Description
Summary:This paper reports numerical investigation, using SCAPS-1D program, of the influence of Cu2ZnSnS4 (the so-called CZTS) material features such as thickness, holes, and defects densities on the performances of ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/CdS/CZTS/Mo solar cells structure. We found that the electrical parameters are seriously affected, when the absorber thickness is lower than 600 nm, mainly due to recombination at CZTS/Molybdenum interface that causes the short-circuit current density loss of 3.6 mA/cm2. An additional source of recombination, inside the absorber layer, affects the short-circuit current density and produces a loss of about 2.1 mA/cm2 above this range of absorber thickness. The J-V characteristic shows that the performance of the device is also limited by a double diode behavior. This effect is reduced when the absorber layer is skinny. Our investigations showed that, for solar cells having a CZTS absorber layer of thin thickness and high-quality materials (defects density ~1015 cm−3), doping less than 1016 cm−3 is especially beneficial. Such CZTS based solar cell devices could lead to conversion efficiencies higher than 15% and to improvement of about 100 mV on the open-circuit voltage value. Our results are in conformity with experimental reports existing in the literature.
ISSN:1110-662X
1687-529X