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ARTICLE

Effect of defect density, bandgap profile, material composition, thickness, and doping density of the absorber layer on the performance of thin film solar cell based on antimony selenosulfide Sb₂(Se_1-yS_y)₃

A. Benmir^*, M. L. Louazene

Laboratory of Electrical Engineering (LAGE), Department of Electrical Engineering, Kasdi Merbah University Ouargla, Ouargla 30000, Algeria

* Corresponding Author:

Chalcogenide Letters 2024, 21(4), 305-317. https://doi.org/10.15251/CL.2024.214.305

Received 30 December 2023; Accepted 04 April 2024;

Abstract

This article deals with the optimization by simulation of a graded bandgap thin film solar cell based on antimony selenosulfide Sb₂(Se_1-yS_y)₃ having the following structure: Front contact/n-ZnO/i-ZnO/p-SbSSe/n-CdS/Back contact. The simulation is performed using SCAPS-1D software. The optimization process includes optimizing the bulk defect density, bandgap profile, material composition, thickness, and doping density of the absorber layer of thin film solar cell based on antimony selenosulfide Sb₂(Se_1-yS_y)₃. We found that for a bulk defect density below 10¹³ cm^-3 , using an absorber material with a graded bandgap profile leads to an efficiency of 25.33 % (For a bulk defect density of 10¹⁰ cm^-3 ) higher than that with a uniform bandgap profile. However, for a bulk defect density of 10¹³ cm^-3 , both profiles provide almost the same maximum solar cell conversion efficiencies of about 13.6 %. Ultimately, for a bulk defect density above 10¹³ cm^-3 , the graded bandgap profile is not useful, and a maximum solar cell conversion efficiency of 10.5 % (For a bulk defect density of 10¹⁴ cm^-3 ) is achieved with a uniform bandgap profile. These optimization results help to improve the efficiency of low-cost fabricated thin-film solar cells.

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