Performance Enhancement of an MoS2-Based Heterojunction Solar Cell with an In2Te3 Back Surface Field: A Numerical Simulation Approach

Md Hasan Ali; Md Abdullah Al Mamun; Md Dulal Haque; Md Ferdous Rahman; M Khalid Hossain; Abu Zafor Md Touhidul Islam

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c07846

Performance Enhancement of an MoS₂-Based Heterojunction Solar Cell with an In₂Te₃ Back Surface Field: A Numerical Simulation Approach

ACS Omega. 2023 Feb 8;8(7):7017-7029. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07846. eCollection 2023 Feb 21.

Authors

Md Hasan Ali¹, Md Abdullah Al Mamun¹, Md Dulal Haque², Md Ferdous Rahman¹, M Khalid Hossain³, Abu Zafor Md Touhidul Islam⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, Rangpur 5400, Bangladesh.
² Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur 5200, Bangladesh.
³ Institute of Electronics, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Dhaka 1349, Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Rajshahi University, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Researchers are currently showing interest in molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂)-based solar cells due to their remarkable semiconducting characteristics. The incompatibility of the band structures at the BSF/absorber and absorber/buffer interfaces, as well as carrier recombination at the rear and front metal contacts, prevents the expected result from being achieved. The main purpose of this work is to enhance the performance of the newly proposed Al/ITO/TiO₂/MoS₂/In₂Te₃/Ni solar cell and investigate the impacts of the In₂Te₃ BSF and TiO₂ buffer layer on the performance parameters of open-circuit voltage (V _OC), short-circuit current density (J _SC), fill factor (FF), and power conversion efficiency (PCE). This research has been performed by utilizing SCAPS simulation software. The performance parameters such as variation of thickness, carrier concentration, the bulk defect concentration of each layer, interface defect, operating temperature, capacitance-voltage (C-V), surface recombination velocity, and front as well as rear electrodes have been analyzed to achieve a better performance. This device performs exceptionally well at lower carrier concentrations (1 × 10¹⁶ cm^-3) in a thin (800 nm) MoS₂ absorber layer. The PCE, V _OC, J _SC, and FF values of the Al/ITO/TiO₂/MoS₂/Ni reference cell have been estimated to be 22.30%, 0.793 V, 30.89 mA/cm², and 80.62% respectively, while the PCE, V _OC, J _SC, and FF values have been determined to be 33.32%, 1.084 V, 37.22 mA/cm², and 82.58% for the Al/ITO/TiO₂/MoS₂/In₂Te₃/Ni proposed solar cell by introducing In₂Te₃ between the absorber (MoS₂) and the rear electrode (Ni). The proposed research may give an insight and a feasible way to realize a cost-effective MoS₂-based thin-film solar cell.