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New ultra thin CIGS structure solar cells using SCAPS simulation program

Article in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy · March 2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.02.099

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New ultra thin CIGS structure solar cells using

SCAPS simulation program

H. Heriche a, Z. Rouabah a, N. Bouarissa b,*

a
Materials and Electronic Systems Laboratory, University of Bordj-Bou-Arreridj, 34000, Bordj-Bou-Arreridj, Algeria
b
Laboratory of Materials Physics and its Applications, University of M'sila, 28000, M'sila, Algeria

article info abstract

Article history: The present contribution reports on the performances of ultra thin chalcopyrite Cu (In,Ga)
Received 21 November 2016 Se (CIGS) solar cells. An alternative ZnO/CdS/CIGS/Si structure has been proposed using
Received in revised form solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS). The main idea behind this analysis is the
20 January 2017 improvement of the device efficiency using materials cheaper than conventional CIGS. For
Accepted 13 February 2017 that purpose, a 1 mm of a new layer p-Si has been added. Various thicknesses of CIGS
Available online xxx absorber layer ranging from 0.1 to 1 mm have been used. Our findings showed that the in-
crease of the absorber layer thickness leads to the improvement of the performance of the
Keywords: new CIGS solar cells. It was found that the best structure must have a window layer ZnO, a
Solar cells buffer layer (CdS), an absorbent layer (CIGS) and a Si layer with thicknesses of 0.02, 0.05, 1
Thin film CIGS and 1 mm, respectively. Cells with these features give conversion efficiency of 21.3%. The
Si present results showed that the new ultra thin CIGS solar cells structure has performance
Ultra-thin parameters that are comparable to those of the conventional ones with reduced cost.
© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

solar cell has achieved the highest conversion efficiency of

Introduction 20.4% [3]. In a CIS/CIGS model, the absorber acts as a p-type
doped region [4], whereas the quaternary system Cu(In,Ga)Se2
Materials for thin film solar cells are currently the subject of (CIGS) allows the band gap of the semiconductor to be
multiple researches in order to reach the highest ratio effi- adjusted over a range of 1.04e1.67 eV by adding the gallium
ciency/cost. Solar cells based on chalcopyrite materials are content into the CIS model. Huang et al. reported that the
distinguished by their thick absorbent layer not exceeding optimum CIGS band gap is about 1.16 eV [5]. The inconve-
2 mm, but sufficient to absorb the useful part of solar spectrum. nience of using CIGS materials is the high cost of indium and
This reduces the cost of the solar cells and retains an gallium constituents. This has affected the use of CIGS thin
acceptable performance compared to cells based on silicon film solar cells. In order to overcome this short coming, people
which requires an absorber layer with a thickness of 200 mm. have thought to reduce the thickness of CIGS absorber layer
Polycrystalline chalcopyrite Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) is a very leading thus to the reduction in the use of indium and gallium.
promising material for thin film photovoltaics and offers a Based on numerical modeling and using 1 mm of CIGS absorber
number of interesting advantages compared to the bulk sili- layer thickness, Amin et al. [6] have achieved an efficiency of
con devices [1]. Because of its appropriate band gap and high 17.26%. On the experimental side, Vermang et al. [7] have
absorption coefficient for solar radiation [2], CIGS thin film employed Si solar cell technology at
Angstro€ m Solar Centre in

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Bouarissa).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.02.099
0360-3199/© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Heriche H, et al., New ultra thin CIGS structure solar cells using SCAPS simulation program, Inter-
national Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.02.099
2 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e9

Fig. 1 e (a) Schematic view of CIGS solar cells (b) Schematic view of new ultra thin CIGS structure.

Sweden and increased the efficiency of ultra-thin Cu(In,Ga)Se2 film solar cells. SCAPS is a dimensional solar cell simulation
solar cells up to 13.5% using a CIGS absorber layer with a program developed at the department of Electronics and In-
thickness of 0.385 mm. This efficiency is still remain smaller formation Systems (ELIS) of the University of Gent, Belgium.
than those of conventional CIGS solar cells with an absorber Several researchers have contributed to its development: Alex
layer thickness lying in the range 2.5e4 mm. Niemegeers, Marc Burgelman, Koen Decock, Johan Vers-
In the present work, an alternative structure of CIGS thin chraegen, and Stefaan Degrave. A description of the program,
film solar cells is suggested. The one-dimensional SCAPS-1D and the algorithms it uses, can be found in the literature
simulator is used to analyze numerically the performances of [12e17]. SCAPS is originally developed for cell structures of the
the newly proposed ZnO/CdS/CIGS/Si thin film solar cells. We CuInSe2 and the CdTe family. Nevertheless, several exten-
show how the device performance is affected by adding the sions have improved its capabilities so that it is also applicable
new absorber layer of Si. We examine also the effect of oper- to crystalline solar cells (Si and GaAs family) and amorphous
ating temperature on both conventional and new ultra thin cells (a-Si and micromorphous Si) [12]. In the model, the
CIGS structures solar cells. absorber (CIGS) is a p-type [4], with a gap ranging from 1.00 to
1.70 eV, the junction is made between the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 p-type
and n-type CdS which has a gap of 2.45 eV and the window
Device structure and simulation layer is formed from ZnO with a gap equal to 3.30 eV [18].
In the new structure we have added a new layer p-Si which
In recent years, interests in numerical simulation have a great has a gap of 1.12 eV. The effect of adding the new absorber
importance for the understanding and design of solar cells layer on photovoltaic cell parameters has been examined
based on crystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous mate- using SCAPS computer software program [12]. Various thick-
rials [8e11]. However, the major difficulty lies in the large nesses of CIGS absorber layer ranging from 1.10 to 2.0 mm have
number of parameters influencing the performance of thin been used so as to investigate the performance of the new
ultra thin CIGS structure solar cells. These solar cells consist of
a Si and CIGS p-type as absorber layers with a thickness of
1 mm, deposited on molybdenum coated back glass substrate,
an n-type buffer layer made of CdS with a thickness of 0.05 mm
and a window layer that is made of n-ZnO with a thickness of
0.02 mm. A schematic view of the new cell structure is shown
in Fig. 1(b).
The band alignment is one of the most important param-
eters that influences the current transport across the hetero-
junction and the performance of the solar cells. As a matter
of fact, the band diagram of solar cells structure can be ob-
tained by using SCAPS-1D software program. In this respect,
the band diagram of the new ultra thin CIGS structure solar
Fig. 2 e Band diagram for new ultra thin CIGS structure cells has been computed using SCAPS-1D code. Our results are
solar cells. displayed in Fig. 2. One can observe that there is a good band

Please cite this article in press as: Heriche H, et al., New ultra thin CIGS structure solar cells using SCAPS simulation program, Inter-
national Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.02.099
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e9 3

Table 1 e Physical parameters used in the simulation.

Parametres n-ZnO n-CdS p-CIGS p-Si
Bandgap, Eg (eV) 3.30 2.45 1.10 1.12
Electron affinity, Xe (eV) 4.60 4.40 4.50 4.05
Dielectric constant, εr 9 10 13.60 11.90
Density of states at conduction band, NC (cm
3) 2.2  1018 2.2  1018 2.2  1018 2.8  1019
Density of states at valence band, NV (cm
3) 1.8  1019 1.8  1019 1.8  1019 2.65  1019
Electron mobility mn (cm2/Vs) 100 100 100 1450
Hole mobility, mp (cm2/Vs) 25 25 25 500
Electron and hole concentration, n, p (cm
3) 1  1020 1  1020 2  106 1  1020
Defect density (cm
3) 1  1014 1  1014 1  1014 1  1014

alignment between Si and CIGS absorber layers. It should be

noted that the defect is taken into account in each layer as Results and discussion
well as in the interface between Cu(In,Ga)Se2(CIGS) and Si. The
defect density in each layer is taken to be 1014 cm
3. CdS is The SCAPS program has been used so as to simulate the
normally used as a buffer. The semiconductor parameters of behavior of ultra thin chalcopyrite Cu(In,Ga)Se (CIGS) solar cell
each layer used in the simulation are shown in Table 1. with a reduction in the thickness of the absorbing layer

Fig. 3 e (a) Variation of JSC and VOC, (b) Variation of efficiency and FF as a function of CIGS thickness.

Please cite this article in press as: Heriche H, et al., New ultra thin CIGS structure solar cells using SCAPS simulation program, Inter-
national Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.02.099
4 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e9

Fig. 4 e (a) Variation of JSC and VOC, (b) Variation of efficiency and FF as a function of new solar cell CIGS thickness.

Cu(In,Ga)Se and to show the effect of adding a new layer p-Si simulation of the photovoltaic parameters has been made
on the device performance. In both structures, we have considering a nul series and an infinitely large shunt
investigated the influence of the thickness of CIGS layers on resistances.
the photovoltaic cell parameters. The structure has been
studied under solar spectrum AM 1.5 with an incident solar Thickness optimization of CIGS absorber layer
power of P ¼ 1000 W/m2 and at a temperature of 300 K. The
The conventional ultra thin CIGS structure with CdS buffer
layer has been checked in terms of CIGS absorber layer. Fig. 3
shows the effect of the thickness of Cu(In,Ga)Se absorber layer
Table 2 e Comparison between performances of solar on the cell performance. In the present contribution, the
cells with and without Si. thickness of the CIGS absorber layer was varied from 1.1 up to
PV performance Solar cell with Si Solar cell without Si 2 mm using SCAPS (one dimensional solar cell simulation
parameters layer (2 mm) layer (2 mm) program). When the CIGS absorber layer thickness increases,
Efficiency (%) 21.3 16.39 a large number of photons are absorbed. This leads to an in-
FF (%) 83.09 81.38 crease in the efficiency from 14.71% for a thickness of 1.1 mm
Jsc (mA/cm2) 34.47 32.82 to a 16.39% for a thickness of 2 mm with a fill factor (FF) of
Voc (V) 0.7436 0.6135
81.38%, open circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.6135 V and a short

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 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e9 5

circuit current density (JSC) of 32.83 mA/cm2. Note that the industry and the manufacture of solar cells. The quantum
values of Voc and Jsc are increased. It is also understood that efficiency is the ratio of the number of charge carriers passing
both Voc and Jsc values will be reduced when the thickness of through the external circuit to the number of incident carriers.
the absorber layer is reduced. This may be caused by the For a given wavelength, the external quantum efficiency is
recombination process at the back contact of the solar cell. If equal to 1 if each photon generates a pair electronehole. The
the absorber layer thickness is reduced, the back contact will effect of thicknesses of the CIGS layer on quantum efficiency
be very close to the depletion region [23]. of the cells in the new structure has also been analyzed. Fig. 5
displays the quantum efficiency (QE) of the solar cell structure
Thickness optimization of CIGS absorber layer for new ultra (ZnO/CdS/CIGS/Si) with different CIGS layer thicknesses. Note
thin CIGS structure solar cells that QE of CIGS/Si solar cell increases with increasing the
absorber layer thickness. In fact, more photons are absorbed
By adding 1 mm of the new layer Si of p-type, the efficiency has when the absorber layer thickness is increased [26].
been increased from 16.39% for conventional ultra thin CIGS
structure to 21.3% for the new structure. The main reason can Effects of operating temperature on ultra and new ultra thin
be traced back to the increase of the thickness of the layer of CIGS structure solar cells
p-type. According to Fig. 4, the cell efficiency increases when
the absorbing layer is thicker. In this simulation, the thickness Among the most important things in the performance of the
of the CIGS absorber layer was varied from 0.1 to 1 mm, while solar cells is the investigation of the effect of operating tem-
other input parameters are kept unchanged. Our findings perature on ultra thin CIGS structure. The study of the
showed that for a thickness of 1 mm, an efficiency of 21.3% has behavior of solar cells with temperature (T) is important since
been achieved. This is primarily due to the fact that when the in terrestrial applications [19] they are generally exposed to
absorber layer is thicker, most of the photons can be absorbed temperatures ranging from 15  C (288 K) to 50  C (323 K) and to
and hence more electronehole pairs are generated. This in- even higher temperatures in space and concentrator-systems
creases JSC from 21.26 to 34.47 mA/cm2 and decreases slightly [20]. The performance of a solar cell is influenced by temper-
VOC from 0.7668 to 0.7436 V leading thus to the improvement ature since its performance parameters, viz. Voc, Jsc, FF and
of the efficiency. The performances of both solar cells with efficiency are temperature dependent [21]. Fig. 6 shows the
and without Si are summarized in Table 2. Considering the variation of both JSC and VOC as a function of temperature for
high cost of indium and gallium materials in CIGS solar cells both solar cells with and without Si layer. We observe that JSC
[24,25], it would not be advisable to produce CIGS solar cells increases with increasing temperature. This is due to the
with very large absorber thickness. Thus, by reducing the reduction of the band-gap energy. As a result more photons
thickness of CIGS solar cells, we reduce the use of indium and will have enough energy to create electronehole pairs. On the
gallium materials which reduces the cost. Hence, a compro- other hand, we note that VOC decreases with raising temper-
mise between cell efficiency and cost is needed for mass ature. The decrease of the VOC with increasing temperature
production. Therefore, with our new ultra thin solar cells CIGS lies in the fact that VOC depends directly on the saturation
that use silicon which is cheaper compared to indium and current which in turn decreases rapidly with increasing
gallium materials, a compromise between cost and efficiency temperature. The efficiency of ultra thin CIGS structure solar
can be achieved. This can help a lot in the development of cells is decreasing when the temperature is increased as

Fig. 5 e Spectral response of the new ultra thin CIGS structure solar cells with various thicknesses of CIGS absorber layers.

Please cite this article in press as: Heriche H, et al., New ultra thin CIGS structure solar cells using SCAPS simulation program, Inter-
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6 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e9

Fig. 6 e Variation of JSC and VOC as a function of operating temperature for (a) new ultra thin cell, (b) conventional ultra thin
CIGS solar cells.

Fig. 7 e Ultra thin cell performance with various operating Fig. 8 e New ultra thin cell performance with various
temperatures for CIGS cells. operating temperatures for CIGS cells.

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 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e9 7

Table 3 e Comparison between efficiencies of solar cells

with and without Si.
Rs Solar cell with Si layer Solar cell without Si
(U cm2) (2 mm) (%) layer (2 mm) (%)
0 21.3 16.39
1 20.23 15.45
2 19.17 14.52
3 18.12 13.61
4 17.08 12.70
5 16.06 11.88

Fig. 9 e Equivalent circuit of an ideal cell under

illumination [29]. Effect of series resistance (Rs) on solar cell device

SCAPS software program allows one to explore the effect of

series and shunt resistances on solar cell device. The series
displayed in Fig. 7. Similar trend can be seen for the new ultra resistance is due to the bulk resistance, the resistance of the
thin CIGS solar structure from Fig. 8. At higher temperatures, metallic contacts of the front- and back surface and further
parameters such as the electron and hole mobilities, carrier circuit resistances from terminals and also from connections.
concentrations and band gaps of the materials would be The parallel resistance is caused by leakage currents. A pen
affected which results in lower efficiency of the cells [22]. junction non-idealities and impurities near the junction causes

Fig. 10 e Efficiency as a function of series resistance (RS) for (a) conventional ultra thin CIGS solar cells (b) new ultra thin cell.

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