Analysis and Optimization of the Performance of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell

Abstract

As the name implies, hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) is composed of silicon atoms which are in a disordered configuration away from all Bravais lattices. The hydrogenated amorphous silicon was manufactured in 1969 where there was a renewed interest in non-hydrogenated amorphous silicon. The use of hydrogenated amorphous silicon as the active material in solar cells inefficient but cheap, is currently much studied. We have presented in this work, the results of the numerical simulation of a-Si: H solar cell by the wxAMPS (Analysis of Microelectronic and Photonic Structures) software and the results were compared with those found experimentally, we find a good agreement. For the efficiency there was a difference of 0.17%. We also study the influence of the thickness of a-Si: H intrinsic layer on the photovoltaic parameters of the solar cell. This allows considering the use of amorphous thinner layers for photovoltaic applications. The efficiency has a maximum value of 7.117 %, corresponding to a intrinsic layer thickness of 560 nm. The using a-Si:H alloys provide a good solution to enhance a-Si:H solar cell performance. The use of a-SiC:H as a p-type window layer in amorphous silicon solar cells is one of its primary photovoltaic applications. The wide band gap of p-a-SiC:H alloy used as window layer for minimizing the optical loss. To improve the efficiency of a-Si:H solar cell, we have study by simulation the performance of the (p) a-SiC:H/(i) a-Si:H/ (n) a-Si:H heterojunction solar cell. The effects of a-SiC:H window layer on the photovoltaic performance have been investigated, where the best initial conversion efficiency of 10.59%.