Numerical simulation of planar BaSi2 based Schottky junction solar cells toward high efficiency. (November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Lian; Chen, Hai; Deng, Quanrong; Wang, Geming; Wang, Shenggao
• Is Part Of: Solid-state electronics. Volume 149(2018)
• Page Start: 46
• Page End: 51
• Publication Date: 2018-11
• Subjects: Schottky junction solar cells -- BaSi2 -- AMPS -- Device simulation; Semiconductors -- Periodicals; Semiconducteurs -- Périodiques; 621.38152
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sse.2018.08.008
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-1101

Abstract

Highlights: A systematic numerical simulation on BaSi2 based Schottky junction solar cells has been carried out. The optimized solar cell with 2000 nm BaSi2 can reach high conversion efficiency up to 25.28%. The effects of barrier height, illumination condition and defect density have been investigated. Abstract: The theoretical and experimental studies on BaSi2 /Si heterojunction solar cells have demonstrated the great potential in utilization of BaSi2 material as light absorption layer for developing high efficiency solar cells with low cost. In addition to BaSi2 /Si heterojunction solar cells, BaSi2 based Schottky junction solar cells could also be achieved by coupling n-type or p-type BaSi2 with suitable metal electrode. In this work, BaSi2 based Schottky junction solar cells were simulated with the program AMPS (analysis of microelectronic and photonic structures)-1D in order to thoroughly understand the mechanism for further improvement in conversion efficiency. Simulation results demonstrated that a simpler structure of metal/n-BaSi2 Schottky junction solar cell with thickness of 2000 nm can reach high conversion efficiency up to 24.12% and 25.28% for N D = 1 × 10 15 cm −3 and N D = 1 × 10 18 cm −3 respectively, being comparable to BaSi2 /Si heterojunction solar cell. Contact barrier height, illumination condition, as well as defect level of metal/n-BaSi2 Schottky junction solar cell were also identified to significantly influence the device performance.