Comparison of Various Thin-Film-Based Absorber Materials: A Viable Approach for Next-Generation Solar Cells

Abstract

Thin-film solar cells are simple and affordable to produce, but their efficiency is low compared to crystalline-silicon solar cells, and needs to be improved. This study investigates the photovoltaic performance of different absorber materials (CdTe, CIGS, Sb2Se3, and CZTS) with simple structure Au/absorber/CdS/ITO. The research uses the SCAPS (Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator), a mathematical model based on Poisson and continuity equations. The impact of various parameters on cell performance, such as absorber layer thickness, acceptor density, electron affinity, back contact work function, and temperature, are examined. As per the simulation results, an absorber thickness of 4 µm is suitable for achieving the maximum efficiency for all the absorber materials. The optimized acceptor density for CdTe/CIGS/ Sb2Se3 and CZTS is taken as 1016 cm−3 and 1017 cm−3, respectively. The back contact work function and device temperature were set to be 5.1 eV and 300 K, respectively, to achieve excellent performance. Among all the absorber materials, the highest efficiency of 28.2% was achieved for CZTS. The aim is to highlight the various absorber layers’ performances by optimizing the device parameters. The obtained results can be used in solar energy harvesting applications due to the improved performance characteristics.