Issue |
EPJ Photovolt.
Volume 4, 2013
Topical issue: Photovoltaic Technical Conference (PVTC 2012)
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 45104 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2013017 | |
Published online | 08 July 2013 |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2013017
2D modelling of polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cells
1 Technische Universität Berlin, Semiconductor Devices Division, PVcomB, Einsteinufer 19, Sekr. E2, 10587 Berlin, Germany
2 Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics, Kekuléstrasse 5, 12489 Berlin, Germany
a
e-mail: ana-maria.teodoreanu@tu-berlin.de
Received: 17 September 2012
Accepted: 5 April 2013
Published online: 8 July 2013
The influence of grain boundary (GB) properties on device parameters of polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film solar cells is investigated by two-dimensional device simulation. A realistic poly-Si thin film model cell composed of antireflection layer, (n+)-type emitter, thick p-type absorber, and (p+)-type back surface field was created. The absorber consists of a low-defect crystalline Si grain with an adjacent highly defective grain boundary layer. The performances of a reference cell without GB, one with n-type and one with p-type GB, respectively, are compared. The doping concentration and defect density at the GB are varied. It is shown that the impact of the grain boundary on the poly-Si cell is twofold: a local potential barrier is created at the GB, and a part of the photogenerated current flows within the GB. Regarding the cell performance, a highly doped n-type GB is less critical in terms of the cell’s short circuit current than a highly doped p-type GB, but more detrimental in terms of the cell’s open circuit voltage and fill factor.
© Teodoreanu et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2013
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.