Influence of Efficient Thickness of Antireflection Coating Layer of HfO2 for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell

Authors: Deb Kumar Shah, Devendra KC, Ahmad Umar, Hassan Algadi, Mohammad Shaheer Akhtar, O-Bong Yang

Abstract:

Anti-reflective coating (ARC) layers on silicon (Si) solar cells usually play a vital role in the amount of light absorbed into the cell and protect the device from environmental degradation. This paper reports on the thickness optimization of hafnium oxide (HfO2) as an ARC layer for high-performance Si solar cells with PC1D simulation analysis. The deposition of the HfO2 ARC layer on Si cells was carried out with a low-cost sol-gel process followed by spin coating. The thickness of the ARC layer was controlled by varying the spinning speed. The HfO2 ARC with a thickness of 70 nm possessed the lowest average reflectance of 6.33% by covering wavelengths ranging from 400–1000 nm. The different thicknesses of HfO2 ARC layers were used as input parameters in a simulation study to explore the photovoltaic characteristics of Si solar cells. The simulation findings showed that, at 70 nm thickness, Si solar cells had an exceptional external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 98% and a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.15%. The thicknesses of HfO2 ARC considerably impacted the photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of Si solar cells, leading to achieving high-performance solar cells.

Keywords: silicon solar cell; HfO2; antireflection layer; PC1D simulation; photovoltaic characteristics

Inorganics 2022, 10(10), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics10100171 

Received: 5 September 2022 / Revised: 3 October 2022 / Accepted: 8 October 2022 / Published: 12 October 2022

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2D Materials for Optoelectronic Devices)

MDPI and ACS Style

Shah, D.K.; KC, D.; Umar, A.; Algadi, H.; Akhtar, M.S.; Yang, O.-B. Influence of Efficient Thickness of Antireflection Coating Layer of HfO₂ for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell. Inorganics 2022, 10, 171. https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics10100171

AMA Style

Shah DK, KC D, Umar A, Algadi H, Akhtar MS, Yang O-B. Influence of Efficient Thickness of Antireflection Coating Layer of HfO₂ for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell. Inorganics. 2022; 10(10):171. https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics10100171

Chicago/Turabian Style

Shah, Deb Kumar, Devendra KC, Ahmad Umar, Hassan Algadi, Mohammad Shaheer Akhtar, and O-Bong Yang. 2022. "Influence of Efficient Thickness of Antireflection Coating Layer of HfO₂ for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell" Inorganics 10, no. 10: 171. https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics10100171

 

Influence of Doping Concentration and Thickness of Regions on the Performance of InGaN Single Junction-Based Solar Cells: A Simulation Approach

by 

D. Parajuli

 ^1,†,

Deb Kumar Shah

 ^2,†,

Devendra KC

 ^3,†,

Subhash Kumar

 ⁴,

Mira Park

 ^5,* and

Bishweshwar Pant

 ^6,*

¹

Research Center for Applied Science & Technology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu 44600, Nepal

²

School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Korea

³

Electrical Department, Gabriel Elektro AS, Myrveien 13, Lebesby Kommune, 9740 Lebesby, Norway

⁴

Department of Applied Chemistry, Delhi Technological University, Delhi 110042, India

⁵

Carbon Composite Energy Nanomaterials Research Center, Woosuk University, Wanju 55338, Korea

⁶

Woosuk Institute of Smart Convergence Life Care (WSCLC), Woosuk University, Wanju 55338, Korea

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Academic Editors: Qi Zhang, Wenhui Pei and Xudong Liu

Electrochem 2022, 3(3), 407-415; https://doi.org/10.3390/electrochem3030028 (registering DOI)

Received: 30 May 2022 / Revised: 20 July 2022 / Accepted: 25 July 2022 / Published: 28 July 2022

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems)

Abstract

The impact of doping concentration and thickness of n-InGaN and p-InGaN regions on the power conversion efficiency of single junction-based InGaN solar cells was studied by the Silvaco ATLAS simulation software. The doping concentration 5 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ and 1 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻³ were optimized for n-InGaN and p-InGaN regions, respectively. The thickness of 300 nm was optimized for both n-InGaN and p-InGaN regions. The highest efficiency of 22.17% with J_sc = 37.68 mA/cm², V_oc = 0.729 V, and FF = 80.61% was achieved at optimized values of doping concentration and thickness of n-InGaN and p-InGaN regions of InGaN solar cells. The simulation study shows the relevance of the Silvaco ATLAS simulation tool, as well as the optimization of doping concentration and thickness of n- and p-InGaN regions for solar cells, which would make the development of high-performance InGaN solar cells low-cost and efficient. View Full-Text

Keywords: InGaN solar cell; doping concentration; thickness; single junction; efficiency; Silvaco ATLAS simulation

Determinantal study on the thickness of graphene oxide as ARC layer for silicon solar cells using: A simulation approach

 Determinantal study on the thickness of graphene oxide as ARC layer for silicon solar cells using: A simulation approach

Authors: Deb Kumar Shah, Devendra KC, Jaeho Choi, Seong Hwan Kang, M. Shaheer Akhtar, Chong Yeal Kim, O-Bong Yang

Citation:

Deb Kumar Shah, Devendra KC, Jaeho Choi, Seong Hwan Kang, M. Shaheer Akhtar, Chong Yeal Kim, O-Bong Yang, Determinantal study on the thickness of graphene oxide as ARC layer for silicon solar cells using: A simulation approach, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing,147, 2022,106695, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2022.106695 

Abstract

This work describes the thickness optimization of graphene oxide (GO) as an antireflection coating (ARC) layer using a low-cost deposition process and validates the experimental results by a simulation study. The optimization of GO thickness was carried out by varying the speed of the spin coating and characterized by various characterization tools. It was found that GO ARC of thickness 80 nm was optimized having the lowest average reflectance of ∼7.69% which was lowered to other GO thicknesses. In a simulation study, the different GO thicknesses were selected as input parameters to explore the highest photovoltaic performances of Si solar cells. The Si solar cell with the GO thickness of 80 nm expressed the highest short-circuit current (Isc = 3.42 A), open-circuit voltage (Voc = 0.653 V), power conversion efficiency (18.78%), and FF (83.74%). The photovoltaic (PV) parameters such as Isc, Voc, FF, efficiency, and sheet resistance were characterized by varying the thickness of ARC layer at the junction depth range from 0.1 μm to 0.5 μm for Si solar cells. It was been found that the optimized thickness (80 nm) of the GO ARC layer exhibited high performance, photocurrent, external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 95%, and high generation of charge carriers. This simulation on optimizing the GO thickness for Si solar cells would provide the utilization of low-cost GO ARC for the development of high-performance Si solar cells.

Keywords

Silicon solar cell

Antireflection layer

Graphene oxide

Junction depth

Thickness

Photovoltaic properties

 

A computational study of carrier lifetime, doping concentration, and thickness of window layer for GaAs solar cell based on Al2O3 antireflection layer

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038092X22001037

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2022.02.006

Authors:

Deb Kumar Shah^1,2, Devendra KC³, D. Parajuli^4,5, *M. Shaheer Akhtar^2,6, Chong Yeal Kim⁶, and *O-Bong Yang^1,2,6 

¹School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Republic of Korea

²Graduate School of Integrated Energy-AI, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Republic of Korea

³Electrical Department, Gabriel Elektro AS, Lakselv 9700, Norway

⁴Research Center for Applied Science & Technology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

⁵Andhra University, Department of Physics, College of Science and Technology, Visakhapatnam, India.

⁶New and Renewable Energy Materials Development Center (NewREC), Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 56332, Republic of Korea

 Abstract

This paper reports on the computational study to investigate the high-performance gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells based on the Al₂O₃ antireflection coating (ARC) layer by optimizing the carrier lifetime, doping concentration, energy bandgap, thickness of window and absorber layers. In this simulation, the parameters like GaAs as an absorber layer, CdS as a window layer, and fixed thickness of the Al₂O₃ ARC layer were selected for performing the personal computer one dimensional (PC1D) simulation. As compared to GaAs solar cell with no ARC layer, GaAs solar cell with Al₂O₃ ARC layer (90 nm) presented the high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 24.60% at absorber thickness 6 mm and 30 nm for window layer. The optimized values of carrier lifetime and doping concentration for high PCE were found to be 100 μs and 1 x 10¹⁷ cm^-3 for both absorber and window layers, respectively. The V_oc, PCE, and fill factor (FF) values gradually increased with the increase of carrier lifetime and doping concentration of the CdS window layer. At optimized parameters, the highest value of I_sc = 3.11 A, V_oc = 0.884 V and PCE = 24.60% were achieved by GaAs solar cells with Al₂O₃ ARC layer. This study proves that optimization of CdS window layer through carrier lifetime, thickness, doping concentrations, and bandgap, etc. would make the crucial component to manufacture cost-effective, high-performance GaAs solar cells based on Al₂O₃ ARC layer.

Keywords: 

GaAs Solar cell, Carrier lifetime, Doping concentration, CdS Window layer, Antireflection layer  

List of published peer-reviewed research articles in a different journal during my PhD within four years.