Improving the efficiency of a CIGS solar cell to above 31% with Sb2S3 as a new BSF: a numerical simulation approach by SCAPS-1D

Md Ferdous Rahman; Mithun Chowdhury; Latha Marasamy; Mustafa K A Mohammed; Md Dulal Haque; Sheikh Rashel Al Ahmed; Ahmad Irfan; Aijaz Rasool Chaudhry; Souraya Goumri-Said

doi:10.1039/d3ra07893k

Improving the efficiency of a CIGS solar cell to above 31% with Sb₂S₃ as a new BSF: a numerical simulation approach by SCAPS-1D

RSC Adv. 2024 Jan 8;14(3):1924-1938. doi: 10.1039/d3ra07893k. eCollection 2024 Jan 3.

Authors

Md Ferdous Rahman¹, Mithun Chowdhury¹, Latha Marasamy², Mustafa K A Mohammed³, Md Dulal Haque⁴, Sheikh Rashel Al Ahmed⁵, Ahmad Irfan⁶, Aijaz Rasool Chaudhry⁷, Souraya Goumri-Said⁸

Affiliations

¹ Advanced Energy Materials and Solar Cell Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Begum Rokeya University Rangpur 5400 Bangladesh ferdousapee@gmail.com.
² Facultad de Química, Materiales-Energía, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (UAQ) Santiago de Querétaro Querétaro C.P. 76010 Mexico.
³ College of Remote Sensing and Geophysics, Al-Karkh University of Science Al-Karkh Side, Haifa St. Hamada Palace Baghdad 10011 Iraq.
⁴ Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University Dinajpur 5200 Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Electrical, Electronic and Communication Engineering, Pabna University of Science and Technology Pabna 6600 Bangladesh.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Khalid University P.O. Box 9004 Abha 61413 Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Bisha P.O. Box 551 Bisha 61922 Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Physics Department, Colleges of Science and General Studies, Alfaisal University P.O. Box 50927 Riyadh 11533 Saudi Arabia sosaid@alfaisal.edu.

Abstract

The remarkable performance of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS)-based double heterojunction (DH) photovoltaic cells is presented in this work. To increase all photovoltaic performance parameters, in this investigation, a novel solar cell structure (FTO/SnS₂/CIGS/Sb₂S₃/Ni) is explored by utilizing the SCAPS-1D simulation software. Thicknesses of the buffer, absorber and back surface field (BSF) layers, acceptor density, defect density, capacitance-voltage (C-V), interface defect density, rates of generation and recombination, operating temperature, current density, and quantum efficiency have been investigated for the proposed solar devices with and without BSF. The presence of the BSF layer significantly influences the device's performance parameters including short-circuit current (J_sc), open-circuit voltage (V_oc), fill factor (FF), and power conversion efficiency (PCE). After optimization, the simulation results of a conventional CIGS cell (FTO/SnS₂/CIGS/Ni) have shown a PCE of 22.14% with V_oc of 0.91 V, J_sc of 28.21 mA cm^-2, and FF of 86.31. Conversely, the PCE is improved to 31.15% with V_oc of 1.08 V, J_sc of 33.75 mA cm^-2, and FF of 88.50 by introducing the Sb₂S₃ BSF in the structure of FTO/SnS₂/CIGS/Sb₂S₃/Ni. These findings of the proposed CIGS-based double heterojunction (DH) solar cells offer an innovative method for realization of high-efficiency solar cells that are more promising than the previously reported traditional designs.