Optimization of Absorber Layer and Operating Temperature of Copper Indium Gallium Selenide Solar Cells Using Different Metal Contacts
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2022-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Port Harcourt
Abstract
Device simulation was employed to investigate the effect of metal back contact electrodes on the
performance of n-type CdS/p-CIGS thin film solar cells using varying thicknesses of absorber layer at operating temperature of 300K. The effect of working temperatures was also studied from 300K to 400K in steps of 10K. The simulations were carried out using standard solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS) 3.3.03 version software. The results showed better efficiencies at the optimized thickness of 3µm for all the back contact electrodes under study. The maximum efficiencies of 17.5 %, 15.5 %, 11.5 %, 3.5 % and 3 % were estimated for CIGS thin film solar cell at 300 K for platinum, gold, cobalt, silver and copper back contact electrodes respectively. The efficiency decreases as the operating temperatures increases from 300 K to 400 K. It is recommended that the optimized thickness of 3 µm is appropriate as absorber layer for efficient and cost effective CIGS thin film solar cells for economic reasons.
Description
Keywords
CIGS, back contact, electrodes, thin film, CdS