Efficiency Enhancement in Polycrystalline CdS/CdTe Solar Cell via Diffraction Grating and Engineering Absorber and Back Surface Field Layers

• Main Author: Malihe Mahoodi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte 2018-12-01
• Series: Holos
• Subjects: cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride; polycrystalline cds/cdte solar cell; conversion efficiency; diffraction grating; engineering absorber and back surface field layers; carrier lifetime
• Online Access: http://www2.ifrn.edu.br/ojs/index.php/HOLOS/article/view/7668

In this paper, the effect of diffraction grating and engineering absorber and back surface field (BSF) layers on performance of a single-junction polycrystalline cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride (CdS/CdTe) solar cell have investigated. At first, the electrical characteristics of reference CdS/CdTe solar cell is simulated and validated with experimental data of fabricated CdS/CdTe solar cell. In order to improve the maximum efficiency, a new structure with diffraction grating and engineering absorber and back surface field layers is presented. Furthermore, the effect of carrier lifetime variation in the absorber layer on the conversion efficiency of solar cell was investigated. It is found that diffraction grating and engineering absorber and back surface field layers can increase the conversion efficiency of the solar cell by about 1.02% and 6% compared with reference cell, respectively. Under global AM 1.5 conditions, the open circuit voltage, short circuit current density, fill factor and conversion efficiency of optimized solar cell structure are 1114 mV, 25.35 mA/cm2, 0.8856 and 25.022%, respectively.