Comparison of theoretical and experimental results for band-gap-graded CZTSSe solar cell

The simulation of CZTSSe solar cells is presented in this paper. The simulation results are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data, indicating the reliability of simulation results. New structure is proposed to increase the functionality of the cell. Improved functional performances are achieved by inserting a P-Silicon (P-Si) layer as back surface field. Simulation results suggest that by inserting this P-Si layer, efficiency of the CZTSSe solar cell increases from 12.6% to 16.59%, which is a significant improvement. For the champion cell J_SC = 36.27 mA/cm², V_OC = 0.625 V and FF = 73.11% has been achieved.     

Fabrication and characterization of nanocrystalline n-CdO/p-Si as a solar cell

A nanocrystalline CdO/Si solar cell was fabricated via deposition of a CdO thin film on p-type silicon substrate with approximately 370 nm thickness using solid–vapor deposition for Cd powder at 1274 K with argon and oxygen flow. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the product was a Cadmium oxide nanocrystalline. X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray analysis were used to characterize the structural properties of the solar cell. The nanocrystalline thin film had a grain size of 38 nm. The solar cell yielded a minimum effective reflectance that exhibited excellent light-trapping at wavelengths ranging from 400 to 1000 nm. Photoluminescence spectroscopy was conducted to investigate the optical properties. The direct band gap energy of the nanocrystalline CdO thin film was 2.46 eV. CdO/Si solar cell photovoltaic properties were examined under 100 mW/cm² solar radiation. The cell showed an open circuit voltage (V_oc) of 457 mV, a short-circuit current density (J_sc) of 18.5 mA/cm², a fill factor (FF) of 0.652, and a conversion efficiency (η) of 5.51%.     

太阳能海水淡化装置的传热研究和性能分析

分析了几种太阳能海水淡化装置工作原理、结构和传热;指出要提高装置的性能参数和产水率,应从加强传热、充分利用潜热、同时减少装置中海水热容量等方面来考虑,但是最主要的是提高太阳能蒸馏器提供热源的温度。上述工作为太阳能海水淡化装置的进一步改进提供参考。     

Effect of potassium fluoride in electrolytic solution on the structure and properties of microarc oxidation coatings on magnesium alloy

Oxide coatings were produced on AM60B magnesium alloy substrate making use of microarc oxidation (MAO) technique. The effect of KF addition in the Na₂SiO₃-KOH electrolytic solution on the microarc oxidation process and the structure, composition, and properties of the oxide coatings was investigated. It was found that the addition of KF into the Na₂SiO₃-KOH electrolytic solution caused increase in the electrolyte conductivity and decrease in the work voltage and final voltage in the MAO process. Subsequently, the pore diameter and surface roughness of the microarc oxidation coating were decreased by the addition of KF, while the coating compactness was increased. At the same time, the phase compositions of the coatings also varied after the addition of KF in the electrolytic solution, owing to the participation of KF in the reaction and its incorporation into the oxide coating. Moreover, the coating formed in the electrolytic solution with KF had a higher surface hardness and better wear-resistance than that formed in the solution without KF, which was attributed to the changes in the spark discharge characteristics and the compositions and structures of the oxide coatings after the addition of KF.     

CdTe/CdS太阳电池I-V，C-V特性研究

测量了CdTe太阳电池器件从50kHz至1MHz频率范围的电容-电压特性，计算了吸收层的载流子浓度和空间电荷区的位置，电容-电压特性测试结果出现两个峰，峰特征与测试频率有关，用多结模型进行模拟分析，解释了实验结果.测量了电池从220K至300K的变温暗电流-电压特性，得出电池的反向暗饱和电流密度J₀和二级管理想因子A，分析了J₀，A随测量温度的变化,并讨论了电池器件的电流特性. 关键词： CdTe太阳电池 电流-电压特性 电容-电压特性     

Characteristic material parameters of CIGS solar cell related with device performance

CIGS solar cells with power conversion efficiency (PCE) in the range of 1.82%–12.30% were obtained by using two-step process, and were further analyzed through various measurement techniques. Material parameters showed diverse values and some trends depending on the device performance. The lower performance device showed small integrated PL intensity, short minority life time, larger defect density and lower activation energy, whereas the higher performance device showed opposite values. We investigated relationship between material parameters and PCE of solar cells, and found that some physical parameters such as integrated PL intensity, minority life time, defect density, and difference between band gap and activation energy (E_g-E_a), which all reflect defect states in bulk and at pn interface, are strongly related with PCE and would be used as a good indicator to evaluate device performance quickly.     

Fabrication and characterization of zinc oxide anti-reflective coating on flexible thin film microcrystalline silicon solar cell

This paper studies the fabrication and characterization of 80 nm zinc oxide anti-reflective coating (ARC) on flexible 1.3 μm thin film microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si) solar cell. High resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) shows a c-axis oriented ZnO (0 0 2) peak (hexagonal crystal structure) at 34.3° with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.3936°. Atomic force microscope (AFM) measures high surface roughness root-mean-square (RMS) of the layer (50.76 nm) which suggests scattering of the incident light at the front surface of the solar cell. UV–vis spectrophotometer illustrates that ZnO ARC has optical transmittance of more than 80% in the visible and infra-red (IR) regions and corresponds to band gap (E_g) of 3.3 eV as derived from Tauc equation. Inclusion of ZnO ARC successfully suppresses surface reflectance from the cell to 2% (at 600 nm) due to refractive index grading between the Si and the ZnO besides quarter-wavelength (λ/4) destructive interference effect. The reduced reflectance and effective scattering effect of the incident light at the front side of the cell are believed to be the reasons why short-circuit current (I_sc) and efficiency (η) of the cell improve.     

The effect of etching time of porous silicon on solar cell performance

Porous silicon (PS) layers based on crystalline silicon (c-Si) n-type wafers with (1 0 0) orientation were prepared using electrochemical etching process at different etching times. The optimal etching time for fabricating the PS layers is 20 min. Nanopores were produced on the PS layer with an average diameter of 5.7 nm. These increased the porosity to 91%. The reduction in the average crystallite size was confirmed by an increase in the broadening of the FWHM as estimated from XRD measurements. The photoluminescence (PL) peaks intensities increased with increasing porosity and showed a greater blue shift in luminescence. Stronger Raman spectral intensity was observed, which shifted and broadened to a lower wave numbers of 514.5 cm⁻¹ as a function of etching time. The lowest effective reflectance of the PS layers was obtained at 20 min etching time. The PS exhibited excellent light-trapping at wavelengths ranging from 400 to 1000 nm. The fabrication of the solar cells based on the PS anti-reflection coating (ARC) layers achieved its highest efficiency at 15.50% at 20 min etching time. The I-V characteristics were studied under 100 mW/cm² illumination conditions.     

Fabrication of in situ alkali doped flexible CIGSSe solar cells by using aqueous spray deposition

Flexible Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ (CIGSSe) solar cells were fabricated on stainless steel foil by using aqueous spray deposition method. Since stainless steel foil is used, external alkali doping is necessary to passivate defects in CIGSSe absorber. We investigated effects of (Na, K) co-doping and selenization temperature on solar cell performance. With co-doping of Na and K, defect states were passivated significantly and highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) was obtained. However, at higher K concentration of more than 0.5%, different growth mode of CIGSSe was observed and deep defect states were developed, decreasing PCE. In addition, selenization temperature effects were studied by varying selenization temperatures. With higher selenization temperature, defect passivation for the CIGSSe absorber was more apparent, which facilitated increase of open circuit voltage. However, short circuit current was observed to be decreased at higher selenization temperature of 570 °C. This work demonstrates in-situ alkali co-doping into CIGSSe absorber with simple and low-cost spray deposition in an air environment.     

聚光型光伏电池冷却热管蒸发端的数值模拟

针对碟式聚光型太阳能光伏电池效率受温度制约的问题,采用两相闭式热虹吸管(重力热管)散热的方式,工质采用水.热管的蒸发端与聚光太阳能电池接触,其温度场对电池性能和热管效率影响显著.通过FLuENT建立了蒸发端底部的数学模型,计算过程中考虑热流密度、蒸汽饱和温度以及充液量对蒸发端性能的影响.计算结果表明,在聚光倍数为140...     

Preparation of chemically deposited thin films of CdS/PbS solar cell

The present paper reports the preparation of a solar cell which has a cross-sectional scheme: ITO/CdS/PbS, containing a commercially transparent conductive ITO; chemically deposited n-type CdS (340 nm) and absorbed layer of p-type PbS (1400 nm). The structural and optical properties of the constituent films are presented. X-ray diffraction showed that all of the thin films are polycrystalline. Using scanning electron microscopy, the present study revealed that the films have uniform surface morphology over the substrate. The solar cell was characterized by determining the open circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, and J–V under 40 mW/cm² solar radiation. The efficiency of the solar cells was 1.35%, which is much higher (0.041, 0.5 and 0.1–0.4%) and slightly smaller (1.65%) than some solar cells reported in the literature.     

New issue of GaN nanoparticles solar cell

This study involves the synthesis of gallium nitride (GaN) nanoparticles (NPs) under different low temperatures using a simple chemical method. The nanoparticles are spin coated on Si substrate to fabricate the solar cell. The FESEM images obtained indicate the presence of cubic GaN nanoparticle with average diameter of 50 nm synthesized at 90 °C. The spin coating technique deposited n-GaN NPs/Si(111) produced a heterojunction solar cell with fill factor of 0.56 and conversion efficiency of 2.06%. Based on these results, this study proposes a novel low cost technique for the fabrication of GaN NPs solar cells.     

Photovoltaic and impedance properties of dye-sensitized solar cell based on nature dye from beetroot

The present study involves fabrication and photovoltaic characterization including impedance properties of dye-sensitized solar cells based on natural dye from beetroot. The electrode of the cell was prepared with commercial Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide glass with 100 μm layer of nanostructured TiO₂ whereas, the counter electrode consisted of platinum-coated glass. Fresh juice was extracted from beetroot to use as dye. The dye exhibited high absorption in visible range. Photovoltaic measurements of the solar cell gave a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 130 μA/cm² and an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.38 V under AM 1.5 illumination intensity. The VOC and Jsc showed linear behavior at higher values of illumination intensities. The conductance-voltage, the capacitance-voltage and the series resistance voltage characteristics of the dye solar cell was measured at frequency range from 5 kHz to 5 MHz to study performance of the dye-sensitized solar cells with natural dyes.     

Influence of InAs quantum dots on the transport properties of GaAs-based solar cell devices

We investigated both the photovoltaic and transport properties of GaAs based solar cells with and without InAs quantum dots (QDs). In small forward bias region, humps in the local ideality factor are found in the QD-embedded devices at low temperatures. This might be caused by the charges captured in the QD-induced defect states. The temperature dependence of the ideality factor, extracted from large voltage regions, was well explained by the tunneling-mediated interface recombination process. The reverse-bias current also exhibited a signature of trap-mediated tunneling. All these results suggested that the presence of trap states could cause the degraded photovoltaic performance of our QD-embedded solar cells.     

Performance of conversion efficiency of a bifacial silicon solar cell with particle irradiation

This paper investigates theoretically the performance of conversion efficiency of a bifacial silicon solar cell with particle irradiation. The bifaciality coefficient and the conversion efficiency are calculated for various rear side illumination conditions and electron fluence, taking into account the diffusion length related damage coefficient. The main purpose of the work is to show that irradiation could significantly degrade both the bifaciality coefficient and then the conversion efficiency of the bifacial solar cell and to exhibit the role of the fluence and rear side illumination condition level in the performance of the bifacial silicon solar cell.     

Effectiveness of full spectrum light soaking on solar cell degradation analysis

This study examined the effect of UV-spectrum light soaking on solar cell degradation tests. An indoor light soaking test was evaluated over three different spectral ranges: “UV only”, “UV blocked” and “Full spectrum”. a-Si:H and poly-crystalline silicon solar cell technologies were studied by light soaking tests with the same optical filter configurations.The I–V measurement results demonstrated that “UV only” irradiated solar cells exhibited the smallest output power degradation, which was only half of a percent variation compared with the full spectrum light soaking case. Using a filter that excluded the effect of the UV spectral range on light soaking, the “UV blocked” case also exhibited a significant output power degradation of the solar cells. A comparative analysis of the solar cell response, based on the I–V characteristics and the diode ideality factor under these different light soaking spectra, demonstrated the importance of the full spectrum light soaking test in the evaluation of the long-term performance of solar cells.     

Bulk and interface recombination in planar lead halide perovskite solar cells: A Drift-Diffusion study

A theoretical approach based on Drift-Diffusion equations is presented to study planar mixed lead halide perovskite solar cells. Updated physical parameters such as permittivity, mobility, effective density of states and doping density is employed in simulations. Current-voltage curve data for two experimental sample is imported and through fitting with the model, density of bulk and interface defects is calculated. We obtain the bulk defect density around 10¹⁶ cm⁻³ and surface recombination velocities in the range of 10 cm/s. These values which are in good agreement with experimental measurements and considerably deviated from previous theoretical studies, verify the model and adopted constants. Shockley-Queisser limit is also presented as the ideal device and the effect of bulk and interface defects are presented as loss factors that cause departure from this limit. Our simulations conclude that the overall efficiency of perovskite solar cells is mainly governed by the open-circuit voltage and also identify the interface defects as the major loss factor in these devices.     

选择性发射极晶体硅太阳电池的二维器件模拟及性能优化

利用PC2D二维模拟软件对选择性发射极晶体硅太阳电池(SE电池)进行了器件模拟和参数优化的研究.在对丝网印刷磷浆法制备的SE电池的实测典型电流-电压曲线实现完美拟合的基础上,全面系统地研究了栅线、基区、选择性发射区和背表面场层等的参数对电池性能的影响.模拟表明:基区少子寿命、前表面复合速度和背表面复合速度是对电池效率影响幅度最大的三个参数.在所研究的参数范围内,当基区少子寿命从50μs上升到600μs时,电池效率从18.53%上升到19.27%.低的前表面复合速度是使发射区方块电阻配比优化有意义的前提.要取得理想的电池效率,背表面复合速度需控制在500 cm/s以下.此外,对于不同的前表面复合速度,电池效率的最大值总是在50—90Ω/□的重掺区方阻、110—180Ω/□的轻掺区方阻的范围内取得.对不同的栅线数目,重掺区宽度与栅线间距之比为32%时,电池的效率最高.另外,在主栅结构保持较低面积比率的前提下,主栅数目的增加也可提高效率.最后,通过优化p型SE电池的效率可达到20.45%.