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