Solar Energy 216 (2021) 329–337

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Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Influence of back surface field layer on enhancing the efficiency of CIGS

solar cell
B. Barman *, P.K. Kalita
Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh 791112, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The main objective of this research work is to improve the efficiency of conventional baseline structured CIGS
CIGS solar cells by adding a Back surface field (PbS) layer between the CIGS absorber and the Mo back contact. The
BSF possible effect of the p-PbS layer on the photovoltaic parameters of the CIGS thin-film solar cell has been
SCAPS-1D
investigated by SCAPS-1D. The simulation of J-V characteristics showed that conversion efficiency of the con­
PbS
Efficiency
ventional solar cell (Al/ITO/Al-ZnO/i-ZnO/CIGS/Mo/Substrate) is 22.67% (3 µm CIGS layer) and an improved
Temperature conversion efficiency of 24.22% has been gained after adding the BSF (PbS) layer. The PbS layer between CIGS
and Mo back contact provides an additional hole tunneling action that form a quasi ohmic contact from a
schottkey type near the back region and this quasi ohmic contact improves the efficiency of carrier collection as
well as BSF action reduces the back surface recombination. Besides thickness, energy band gap, electron affinity
of the PbS layer were varied and optimized. Again, operating temperature on the overall performance of the
proposed solar cell was also investigated. These findings are very promising for future performance and cost
effective solar cell.

1. Introduction laboratory reaches 22.67% (Jackson et al., 2016). CIGS is a compound

semiconductor alloy of group I-III-VI and it has a possibility of band gap
The light from the Sun is a non-vanishing renewable source of energy within the range 1.01 eV to 1.67 eV according to the equation (Ahmed
which is free from environmental pollution and noise. It can easily et al., 2017b).
compensate the energy drawn from the non renewable sources of energy
Eg = 1.011 + 0.421x + 0.244x2 (1)
such as fossil fuels and petroleum deposits inside the earth. Renewable
energy provides better solution to this problem and Solar cell is one of
where the band gap is Eg in eV and x is the percentage of Ga in CIGS
the main source of renewable energy. The fabrication of solar cells has
sample (x = Ga/Ga + In). But problem is that the composition materials
passed through a large number of improvement steps from one gener­
Ga(Gallium) and In (Indium) in CIGS sample is a very rare and costly, so
ation to another. But the development of solar cell is basically hindered
researchers concentrate their attention to minimize the use of Gallium
by the cost and efficiency (Bechlaghem et al., 2018; Samar et al., 2017;
and indium in CIGS absorber by thinning the absorber layer to reduce
Mohammad and Hossein, 2015). Thus to accomplish the perpetual need
the production cost (Chihi et al., 2017; Oyedele et al., 2016; Tariq and
of the three main elements (i.e cost, efficiency and lifetime), researchers
Moustafa, 2019). As we know performance of photovoltaic cell depends
are working hard on various materials for last few decades. CIGS has
on the three factors. They are exciton dissociation, charge extraction and
been a promising candidate for thin film materials solar cell over the
transport or collection of the generated charge carrier (Vinayakan et al.,
years because of its high conversion efficiency, high stability, low cost
2007). But efficiency of solar cell is hindered due to back surface
and tunable band gap (Bouabdelli et al., 2020; Schmid, 2017). More­
recombination and the semiconductor (CIGS)/metal (Mo) contact
over, CIGS has high absorption coefficient of about 107 m− 1, makes this
interface recombination (Tariq and Moustafa, 2019). A good back con­
material more attractive and efficient for photovoltaic applications
tact metal is required with a high work function to enhance the effi­
(Ishizuka et al., 2009; Jia-Rong and Sung, 2017). At present the highest
ciency of the cell. Since most metals do not have sufficiently high work
efficiency of the conventional baseline structured CIGS solar cell at
functions and therefore Schottky-barrier contact is formed between the

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Barman).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.01.032
Received 3 October 2020; Received in revised form 12 January 2021; Accepted 14 January 2021
Available online 3 February 2021
0038-092X/© 2021 International Solar Energy Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
B. Barman and P.K. Kalita Solar Energy 216 (2021) 329–337

metal electrode and CIGS absorber layer interface (Sun et al., 2019).
d2 e
This Schottky-barrier can significantly affect the current–voltage (I-V) Ψ(x) = p(x) − n(x) + ND − NA + ρp − ρn (2)
characteristics of a CIGS cell, primarily by impeding hole transport. dx2 ε0 εr
Therefore a good metal with high work function is needed to form an
dJn dJp
ohmic contact to CIGS absorber layer. A typical approach to overcome = G − R and = G− R (3)
dx dx
this obstacle is to either reduce the barrier height or moderate its width
by heavily doping extra layer of back surface field (BSF) with appro­ dn dΦ dp dΦ
priate material between the CIGS and final metal back contact (Nowshed Jn = Dn + μn n and Jp = Dp + μp p (4)
dx dx dx dx
et al., 2010; Sanjoy et al., 2018). Till date, a very few experimental and
theoretical work has been done to improve the performance of the CIGS where Ψ(x)is electrostatic potential, e is electrical charge, εr is relative
solar cell using the back surface field layer. The experimental efficiency and εo is the vacuum permittivity, p and n are hole and electron con­
of CIGS thin-film solar cell has been reported to be 19.2% (Ramanathan centrations, ND is charged impurities of donor and NA is acceptor type, ρp
et al., 2003), 19% (Repins et al., 2008), while based on numerical and ρn. are holes and electrons distribution, G is generation rate and R
analysis, the theoretical efficiency has been reported to be 21.3% recombination rate (Tariq and Moustafa, 2019; Wanda et al., 2016;
(Heriche et al., 2017), 22.02% (Daoudia et al., 2016), 22.11% (Moste­ Tarek et al., 2019). Table 1 shows the different values of the physical
faoui et al., 2015), and 22.67% (Jackson et al., 2016). The optimum parameters of the materials in the CIGS solar cell (Antonino et al., 2015;
thickness of the absorber layer for the highest efficiency (22.67%) solar Mostefaoui et al., 2015; Hosen et al., 2017; Jaymin et al., 2017). Based
cell is 3 µm which is quite costly. Moreover, the efficiency of fabricated on the input parameters (Table 1) SCAPS-1D solves three coupled dif­
CIGS solar cells was increased from 9% to 14.5% by the use of a mo­ ferential equations from Eqs. (2)–(4) and then calculates the electro­
lybdenum selenide (MoSe2) BSF layer (Khoara et al., 2001). In addition, static potential and the quasi-Fermi level for holes and electrons at all
SnS (Benabbas et al., 2016) and Al2O3 (Chihi et al., 2017) was used as point in the solar cell (Kunal et al., 2019). All the simulations are con­
BSF layer in CIGS solar cell and was studied experimentally and theo­ ducted under AM 1.5G light and a working temperature of 300 K.
retically. Their investigation revealed that efficiency can be enhanced at Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the modified structure of the
low cost by using the thin CIGS layer. In this regard, as a potential conventional structure (Al/ITO/Al-ZnO/i-ZnO/CdS/CIGS/Mo) of the
candidate material for the back-surface field (BSF) layer, the emerging CIGS solar cell with a p-type CIGS absorber having Eg of 1.3 eV [from Eq.
semiconducting Lead Sulfide (PbS) could be utilized in CIGS-based solar (1)] and n-type CdS buffer layer having Eg of 2.4 eV (Benmir and Aida,
cells to reduce the thickness of the CIGS absorber layer. For this work we 2013), creating a heterojunction between them and facilitate photo­
have chosen PbS layer as BSF layer because it is low cost and more voltaic effect, while the band gap of ZnO window layer is 3.4 eV
abundant one. Moreover, it has good absorption coefficient, higher (Bechlaghem et al., 2018) which is expected to promote the absorption.
electron affinity compared to SnS, MoSe2 and Al2O3 BSF layers (Rahul Moreover ITO film has highly favorable properties, such as low re­
et al., 2020; Ankita et al., 2019). A band gap of 1.4 eV can be achieved sistivity, high optical transmittance for visible light and near infrared
easily by chemical vapour deposition method (Darren et al., 2015). region, making it effective as a front contact for the proposed solar cell.
Various experimental work has been done on PbS as absorber material An additional layer p-PbS layer of band gap 1.4 eV (Darren et al., 2015)
on solar cell device and found better stability and higher efficiency was added between the CIGS and Mo back contact. When light falls on
(Speirs et al., 2014; Woojun et al., 2013). PbS will be exploited for the the absorber layer, it generates electron- hole pairs and thereby develop
first time as a BSF layer through is work. Several Software tools have a voltage across the junction. This in built voltage facilitates the sepa­
been used for theoretical approaches and analysis till date, Out of which ration of the photo generated charge carries in the solar device. The
SCAPS-1D has been widely used in recent times for its better simulation Photovoltaic parameters such as Open circuit voltage (Voc), Short circuit
performance of solar cell characteristics. SCAPS-1D can calculate current density (Jsc), Fill Factor (FF) and Efficiency (η) are calculated
steady-state energy band diagram, interface recombination and carrier using this software and analyzed. All these parameters reveals nicely
transport based on the Poisson’s equation and carrier transport (Tariq how efficiently a solar cell can convert the photo generated carriers into
and Moustafa, 2019; Ouedraogo et al.,2016). The main objective of this electricity corresponds to variation of layer thickness and band gap.
work is to simulate and optimize the cell parameter of the CIGS layer as The amount of current passing through the hetero-junction is
well as BSF layer to enhance the efficiency. In order to achieve this
improved performance, a detail analysis was done on the band gap,
electron affinity, Quantum efficiency and device temperature for the Table 1
proposed cell using simulation in SCAPS-1D. Physical parameter of proposed solar cell.
Parameter p- CIGS n-CdS i-ZnO Al-ZnO p-PbS
2. Device simulation and analysis Thickness (µm) 0.5–3 0.05 0.05 0.2 0.05–3
Energy band gap (eV) 1.3 2.4 3.4 3.4 1.2–1.4
In recent years simulation become a remarkable tool for optimizing Electron affinity (eV) 4.5 4.4 4.6 4.6 3.9–4.35
and analyzing the design and performance of all kinds of efficient solar Dielectric constant 13.6 10 9 9 10
(m− 1)
cells prior to its experimental analysis (Burgelman et al., 2004). In this CB density of states 2.2⋅1018 2.2⋅1018 2⋅1018 2⋅1018 2⋅1018
paper, we use the Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator structures (SCAPS- (m− 3)
1D) to analyses the CIGS-based solar cells. SCAPS is an one-dimensional VB density of states 1.8⋅1019 1.8⋅1019 1.8⋅1019 1.8⋅1019 2⋅1018
solar cell device simulator, developed at ELIS, University of Gent, which (m− 3)
Electron mobility 100 100 100 100 25
is freely available to the PV research community (Speirs et al., 2014). In
(cm/s)
SCAPS, almost all the parameters can be graded, including the band gap, Hole mobility (cm/s) 25 25 25 25 100
electron affinity, mobility, doping, thermal speed, effective density of Elctron thermal 107 107 107 107 107
states, etc. velocity (cm/s)
A maximum of seven semiconductor layers can be added for simu­ Hole thermal velocity 107 107 107 107 107
(cm/s)
lation. SCAPS is capable of solving the basic semiconductor equations, Donordensity (cm− 3) – 1017 – 1021 –
the Poisson equation and the continuity equations for electrons and Acceptor density 1.1⋅1018 – – – 5.5⋅1016
holes. (cm− 3)
The equations are Defect Density 1014 1016 1015 1015 1014/
1015

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CIGS cell with BSF (PbS) layer are shown in Fig. 2.

3. Results and discussions

The use of back surface field (BSF) material is found to be better,

effective and easier one among several methods to overcome the
recombination problem with the back contact. The proposed structure
(Al/ITO/Al-ZnO/i-ZnO/CIGS/PbS/Mo) was modified from the conven­
tional cell proposed by Samar et al. (2017). The simulation work for the
two designed cells have been done by fitting the standard physical pa­
rameters of the materials used as shown in Table 1. The program was run
by applying a voltage range from zero to one volt for projecting the I-V
characteristics under dark and AM1.5G light illumination (Fig. 3). The
simulated results have shown that the use of PbS as BSF layer enhances
the cell performances.

3.1. Optimization of conventional solar cell

The aim of this work is to achieve highest efficiency of the CIGS cell
at low production cost. To determine influence of thickness of CIGS
absorber layer on the photovoltaic performance, the thickness of the
conventional CIGS structured cell’s absorber layer was varied from 0.5

Fig 1. Schematic diagram of proposed CIGS solar cell.

determined by the band alignment. A schottkey barrier contact is formed

at the CIGS back and Mo contact since Mo has work function of 4.95 eV
whose value is lower than Eg + χ (satisfying the condition Φm < Eg + χ
where Φm is the metal work function and χ is the electron affinity)
(Aissani et al., 2017; Matin et al., 2013). If an electron reaches to the
back surface, it is frequently captured and no longer can contribute
current. But addition of a thin layer called BSF layer between the CIGS
and Mo can reduce the barrier height by forming a quasi-ohmic contact
and gives the electron ‘a second chance’ to reach the emitter and
contribute to the current. The PbS BSF layer provides the additional hole
tunneling to form the quasi ohmic contact as well as reduces the back Fig 3. J-V characteristics of the conventional cell under dark and light
surface recombination. The schematic diagram of the energy band of illumination.

Fig 2. Energy band diagram of proposed CIGS cell.

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µm to 4.5 µm while keeping all other parameter constant. Fig. 4 shows hence a good photovoltaic performance was found at a relatively thinner
the all the photovoltaic performance results from J-V characteristics layer of almost 1200–1500 nm.
with varying thickness. The efficiency reaches a highest value of 24.22% for 1.5 µm CIGS
From the J-V characteristics curve, it is cleared that all the electrical layer. After that the efficiency decreases; so the optimum thickness of
parameters are strongly influenced by the absorber layer thickness. All the absorber layer of the proposed cell is 1.5 µm. The reduction in CIGS
the electrical parameters are found to decrease significantly with the layer thickness will definitely reduce the production cost of the solar
decrease of the absorber layer thickness. The short circuit current den­ cell.
sity (Jsc) decreases sharply from 32.41 mA/cm2 to 27.93 mA/cm2 if we
decrease the layer thickness from 1500 nm to 500 nm. This is mainly due 3.3. Optimization of the BSF layer thickness
to back surface recombination at CIGS and Mo contact. Since photon of
high energy (short wavelength) can penetrate deeply into the thinner In order to optimize PbS layer thickness, the thickness of PbS layer
layer and can generate electron hole pairs at CIGS/Mo contact region. In was varied from 50 nm to 400 nm by keeping the CIGS layer thickness at
this zone most of electron-hole pairs are recombined, thereby current 1.5 µm and the result is shown in Fig. 8. Results show that efficiency
density decreases. From the quantum efficiency graph shown in Fig. 5 increases sharply from 50 nm to 150 nm and after that there is no sig­
we can conclude that quantum efficiency decreases after peak absorp­ nificant change in the graph. The thickness of PbS layer is set at 150 nm.
tion at around 550 nm for the thinnest layer of 500 nm. However, all the Moreover, according to some experimental results, thicker layer is not
electrical parameters are increasing up to layer thickness of 3000 nm, appropriate to use, since it leads to a high series resistance and thus
after that there is no significant change in the electrical parameter. The reduces the overall efficiency of the cell. Higher shunt resistance is
short circuit current at 3000 nm is 33.96 mA/cm2 which is 6.23 mA/cm2 desirable for overall efficiency but higher series resistance is not desir­
higher than the thinnest absorber’s layer short circuit current density. able therefore FF decreases for thicker BSF layer which is shown in the
This increase in short circuit current is attributed to the increase in Fig. 8.
collection of photo generated carries and complete absorption of
photon. The quantum efficiency is high at this region and reaches up to
3.4. Optimization of energy band gap and electron affinity of PbS layer
92% for the wavelength range 500 nm-900 nm leading to cell efficiency
up to 22.67%. Again the open circuit voltage (Voc) has been deteriorated
It is evident from the Fig. 9 that energy band gap of the BSF has a
to a value 0.7516 mV with the decrease of the thickness layer up to 500
crucial role on the performance of the solar cell. The results showed that
nm. The change in open circuit voltage is due to the variation in
electrical parameters (Voc, Jsc and η) increase linearly and significantly
recombination of the photo generated carriers. Thus, the decrease of the
with the increase in the band gap from 1.2 to 1.4 eV (Rakesh et al.,
Voc and Jsc leads to the decrease in device efficiency. From this analysis it
2020). The improved parameter is due to reduced minority carrier
is found that CIGS cells yields best efficiency at thickness of 3 µm with
recombination at the back. However, FF decreases after 1.3 eV. This
output Voc (0.8180 V), Jsc (33.9619 mA/cm2), FF (81.62%) and η
reduction in FF is due to the barrier height developed for holes in the
(22.67%).
valence band diagram shown in Fig. 7. These results are in good
agreement with what was analysed by Ashutosh and Kumar (2019).
3.2. Comparison between conventional and proposed CIGS solar cell Electron affinity is the difference of vacuum level and conduction
band edge. It will decide whether an Ohmic or a Schottky barrier will
From Fig. 3 it has been found that CIGS yields highest efficiency at 3 form in the hetero-junction device. Here we have considered Eg of 1.4 eV
µm thickness. But after adding PbS (BSF) layer of thickness 200 nm, solar for 0.15 µm PbS. Jsc decreases when χ was increased from 3.9 eV to 4.2
cell efficiency increases up to 23.53%. A comparative analysis are shown eV. Upon further increase in the χ to 4.4 eV, Jsc increases up to
in Fig. 6 by changing the CIGS thickness from 0.5µ to 3 µm while keeping approximately 35.22 mA/cm2. Voc was found to decrease in the range of
the PbS layer thickness constant at 200 nm. All the photovoltaic per­ 3.9–4.3 eV of χ , after that Voc is almost constant. The efficiency was
formance of the proposed cell has been increased significantly under found to increase from 21.88% to 24.22%. The rise in efficiency is
same absorption layer thickness. Fig. 7 shows the SCAPS generated band observed due to the proper band alignment (see Fig. 10).
diagram of the two solar cells. The improvement of the photovoltaic
parameter may be due to the additional PbS layer due to which an quasi- 3.5. Effect on quantum efficiency
ohmic contact is formed at the semiconductor (CIGS) metal (Mo)
interface. This will reduce the recombination at the back surface and Quantum efficiency of a solar cell is defined as the ratio of the
leads to the increase in Voc and Jsc. Again from Fig. 6 it is obtained that number of electrons in the external circuit produced by an incident
for the proposed cell, the growth trend of the photovoltaic parameter are photon of given wavelength. The quantum efficiency curve simulated
more gentle with the increase of the thickness of the absorber layer and for both device structures are shown in Fig. 11. BSF layer acts as a

Fig 4. J-V characteristics of conventional CIGS solar cell.

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Fig. 5. Quantum efficiency graph for various thickness of CIGS layer.

Fig. 6. J-V characteristics of CIGS cell without and with BSF layer.

reflector which plays a crucial role in improving light trapping proper­ 3.6. Effect of operating temperature on CIGS solar cell
ties. An improved back reflectivity reduces photon absorption that leads
to higher quantum efficiency. The cells show a maximum in the quan­ The operating temperature plays an vital role on the performance of
tum efficiency around 500 nm. It is also found that the QE has been the solar cell. The optimum operating temperature for the cell that have
enhanced after adding the BSF layer due to the increase of photons been used is 300 K. In this study we have varied temperature from 300 K
collection at longer wavelengths ranging from 500 nm to 1000 nm on a to 370 K. From the Fig. 12, it was obtained that solar cell performance is
high level of approximately 95%. severely affected by operating temperature. The relation between Voc
This high absorption results in generation of more electron-hole pairs and Jsc with the temperature can be understand by the equation Voc =
( )
in the device, leading to increase in current density. Moreover QE de­ nKT Jsc
creases in the long wavelength between 1000 nm and 1100 nm. This is q log Jo +1 , where n is ideality factor, K is Boltzmann constant, T is

most likely due to incomplete absorption of long wavelength photons. operating temperature, q is electronic charge, Jo reverse saturation

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Fig. 7. SCAPS generated energy band diagram (a) without BSF and (b) with BSF.

Fig. 8. J-V characteristics of CIGS cell after adding of PbS layer.

Fig. 9. J-V characteristics to optimize PbS layer energy band gap.

current. When temperature increases, the reverse saturation current also free path of the carriers become less, therefore most of the electron-hole
increases exponentially and thereby it reduces Voc. recombine and Voc decreases. Moreover, this scattering effect offers a
Again at high temperature, more numbers of carriers are generated resistance for the free movement of the charge carriers and due to this
which lead to the increase in current density (Jsc), but due to increase in resistance FF decreases significantly. The increase in Jsc and decrease in
the phonon density, the phenomenon of phonon scattering may pre­ Voc, FF lead to the overall decrease in device efficiency.
dominate at this high temperature. Due to this scattering effect the mean

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Fig. 10. J-V characteristics to optimize electron affinity of PbS layer.

Fig. 11. Quantum efficiency with and without BSF.

Fig. 12. (a) J-V characteristics curve and (b) Temperature dependence of Photovoltaic parameters.

3.7. Summary of numerical results paper. A comparative study from the reported experimental and Simu­
lation work is presented below as shown in Tables 2 and 3. Table 2
The advantage of using PbS as BSF layer has been discussed in this clearly shows that a thickness of the order of 1.5 µm CIGS with an

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Table 2 gap and electron affinity of proposed BSF layer on the photovoltaic
Effect of BSF layer. parameters of the cell was investigated. This investigation reveals that
Cell type CIGS BSF Voc (V) Jsc FF η (%) those parameters play a crucial role on enhancing the output charac­
thickness thickness (mA/ (%) teristics of the cell. The output parameter of the cells are evaluated
(µm) (µm) cm2) numerically and compared with the previously reported simulation as
Conventional 3 – 0.8108 33.96 82.35 22.67 well as experimental studies. Results show that a higher efficiency can
Conventional 1.5 – 0.7969 32.41 81.75 21.11 be achieved by reducing the thickness of the absorber layer. Further­
Proposed 1.5 0.15 0.8359 35.22 82.29 24.22 more, it was observed that high operating temperature can severely
affect the solar cell performance. From the above analysis it was found
that PbS can be used as promising BSF layer to enhance the efficiency of
Table 3 the CIGS solar cell. Since, the composition materials i.e Indium(In) and
A comparison with other reported work on solar cells. Gallium(Ga) in CIGS are very costly. Therefore, a reduction in layer
Type of Absorber BSF η (%) η (%) Reference thickness as well as using a BSF would also lower the production cost.
Research Without With
BSF BSF
Declaration of Competing Interest
Experimental CIGS – 19.2% – Ramanathan
et al. (2003)
Experimental CIGS – 19% – Repins et al. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
(2008) interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
Theoretical CIGS – 21.3% – Heriche et al. the work reported in this paper.
(2017)
Theoretical CIGS – 22.02% – Daoudia et al.
(2016) Acknowledgment
Theoretical CIGS – 22.67% – Jackson et al.
(2016) The authors are very thankful to the Marc Burgelman and his team at
Theoretical CZTS 23.56% Gueddine et al.
the Department of Electronics and Information Systems (ELIS), Univer­
– –
(2018)
Experimental Si ZnS 6.40% 11.02% Yang et al. sity of Gent, Belgium for providing us SCAPS-1D software.
(2018)
Experimental CIGS MoSe2 9% 14% Khoara et al., References
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