1-3 Exposure with AM1.5G
Numerical simulation of this design obtained under AM1.5G (1 sun) radiation. The numerical diagram of this spectrum created using the simulation in Silvaco ATLAS program is very similar to the AM1.5G spectrum.
A high InGaP cell with a band gap of 1.8 electron volts is used to absorb photons in the ultraviolet and visible spectrum. Whereas, the low GaAs cell with a band gap of 1.42 electron volts is used for energetic photons with a near-infrared band gap. InGaP, GaAs, and InAlGaP are very effective in absorbing photons that have energy close to their band gap energy.
2-3 Tunneling behavior
The upper InGaP cell and the lower GaAs cell are electrically and optically connected by a tunnel junction with heavy contamination and small thickness. This region leads to recombination between electrons and holes in the top and bottom cells, respectively. Figure 2 shows a diagram of dual- junction InGaP/GaAs solar cell power strip made with Silvaco ATLAS software at zero volts after adjusting the material parameters.
The tunneling area is approximately 0.695 Β΅m. As can be seen from the results, the InAlGaP window layer with larger band gap energy (2.36 electron volts) is used for optimum transparency and emitter coating. Reduce the effects of surface recombination.
3.3 Adding a buffer layer to the bottom cell and optimizing the Dual-junction (DJ) solar cell InGaP / GaAs
To achieve greater efficiency, an additional layer called a buffer layer is added to the bottom cell, which is necessary to achieve maximum efficiency. According to Table 1, it can be seen that the properties of the materials used in this design are similar and make them quite desirable materials. The current device structure consists of a buffer layer next to the cathode electrode. The main role of the buffer is to collect and transfer load carriers and prevent opposing loads. The use of a cathode buffer layer also makes it possible to build highly efficient solar cells. It is expected that the photovoltaic parameters will be mainly affected by the electrode buffer layer, which is usually Voc, maximized at ohmic junctions, and the FF fill factor coefficient is also improved. The proposed hardware structure, along with the exact contamination profile and thickness, is shown in Figure 3.
In this design, the buffer layer is used to achieve greater efficiency. The buffer layer provides a conductive strip that improves the performance of the device (Figure 4a). The spike part prevents Voc open circuit voltage losses due to the recombination level control. The created barrier prevents the transfer of less energetic electrons and therefore causes a low level of recombination in this layer. As you can see in Figure 4, it has higher alpha and more band gap than InAlGaP, and for this reason, the optical production rate of this layer is also higher than AlGaAs and the light flux increases slightly after adding the buffer layer. (Figure 4b)
AlGaAs buffer layer can be effective in increasing Voc and Jsc. The combination of AlGaAs with other layers leads to an increase in lower light current due to the increased recombination in the emitter layer of the bottom cell, but the rate of light production is also high. Solar cell performance is possible by changing the thickness of the AlGaAs buffer layer to optimize and achieve maximum efficiency. Important simulation parameters are possible to optimize and achieve maximum efficiency. The important parameters of the proposed solar cell simulation are shown in Table 1.
Table 1
Effect of AlGaAs buffer layer thickness change on the proposed solar cell profile
Eff (%)
|
FF(%)
|
Voc(V)
|
Jsc(mA/cm2)
|
Thickness (Β΅m)
|
36.4212
|
87.1287
|
2.2300
|
16.3278
|
0.01
|
36.5742
|
87.9267
|
2.2310
|
16.3936
|
0.02
|
36.7806
|
87.9341
|
2.2320
|
16.4846
|
0.03
|
36.7910
|
87.9201
|
2.2320
|
16.4893
|
0.04
|
36.7885
|
87.9138
|
2.2318
|
16.4755
|
0.05
|
In the previous case, it has increased by about 0.573, which can be increased after the next changes. The table of efficiency changes based on the thickness of the buffer layer is shown in Table 1. According to the diagram, it is clear that at a thickness of 0.04 micrometers, the efficiency of the device reaches its maximum.
4.3 The effect of changing the type of tunnel junction material on the solar cell characteristics of Dual junction InGaP / GaAs grafts
In this section, we examine the change in tunnel junction materials on the structure of Dual-junction (DJ) solar cell. As mentioned earlier, in multi- junction (MJ) solar cell, communication between each cell is possible through a tunnel junction. Tunnel joints should be transparent to the wavelengths absorbed by the next photovoltaic cell. Here, the tunnel junction consists of a high-dose contaminated p-n bond with low resistance to minimize voltage drop between cells. It also has high optical transmission capability to reduce light loss due to light absorption within the tunnel junction layers. At this junction, electrons tunnel between the potential barriers formed at the interface of the bilayer.
In this design, the main purpose of the tunnel junction is to create low electrical resistance and little loss between the two cells. Without a tunnel junction, the impurity region p interacts with the impurity region of upper and lower cells, in the middle of two cells, and a p-n bond is formed in the opposite direction of the top upper and bottom cells. As a result, the multi-bonded solar cell between the p-n layers needs an interface. Tunnel junction increases the efficiency of several bond solar cells by creating a low resistance pathway for carriers to flow. Table 2 shows the performance of a Dual-junction solar cell with a tunnel area composed of different compounds.
Table 2
Proposed different solar cell parameters with different materials in the tunnel junction area
Eff(%)
|
FF(%)
|
Voc(V)
|
Jsc(mA/cm2)
|
Material
|
36.7806
|
87.9341
|
2.2320
|
16.4787
|
GaAs/GaAs
|
36.6242
|
87.9267
|
2.2321
|
16.4079
|
AlGaAs/GaAs
|
36.6076
|
87.9341
|
2.2321
|
16.4005
|
InGaP/GaAs
|
36.8608
|
87.9201
|
2.2340
|
16.4999
|
InGaP/InGaP
|
Here, InGaP is used as an alternative. The proposed solar cell structure consists of three regions: top cell, tunnel diode, and Bottom cell. The schematic of the proposed structure is shown in Figure 5.
We know that one of the most important issues for achieving high efficiency of integrated multi- junction solar cell is to achieve low-loss electrical and optical connections. InGaP is a very popular substance in solar cells. InGaP is a large bandwidth semiconductor with network compatibility with GaAs. Also, the band gap of this material is bigger compared to GaAs. The materials of the different layers of the solar cell are selected so that the band gap of the upper layers is the largest and then the solar cell is continued by tunnel junction and the band gap will be less in the bottom cell.
Eg (top cell) > Eg (tunnel diode) > Eg (bottom cell)
Since it is difficult to achieve the maximum tunneling current in the upper band gap, it is necessary to form a thin discharge zone with high pollution. Most potential drops occur throughout the p-n graft discharge region. Figure 6 this is due to the presence of endogenous potential during n-p bond formation.
The voltage drop across the junction is due to the built-in potential, so that the electric field in the junction region is maximal. Figure 7 shows the electric field developed in the various layers of the modeled solar cell. The field in the junction area is clearly very large.
According to the above criteria, efficient absorption of solar radiation by different layers of the solar cell results in higher efficiency. By replacing InGaP with GaAs, the efficiency increases to 36.8608%. This proves that the InGaP/InGaP tunnel junction performs better than the GaAs/GaAs tunnel junction.
6.3 Adding a BSF layer to the top cell and optimizing
In the previous section, it was said that an effective BSF layer is an important element in achieving a high efficiency of a solar cell. This layer, which we are considering in this section, is an important layer in the structure of the solar cell that prevents the charge carriers from recombining by returning them to the p-n junction. These layers are applied to consecutive or junction III-V solar cells. A key feature of the BSF layer is that it limits participation for optically produced carriers and maintains them in p-n junction expansion without increasing the series resistance of the device. This layer also acts as a reflector of minority carriers to the p-n junction.
Optimizing the thickness of the BSF layer is a very important point in the design of multi- junction (MJ) solar cell. By changing the thickness of this layer, large changes can be made in the open circuit voltage and Short-circuit current of the device. In this work, InAlGaP material is used as the BSF layer, which is network compatible with GaAs material. The presence of BSF multilayers leads to more aggregation of optically produced carriers. It also creates a very strong potential barrier to prevent minority carriers and recombination between layers.
According to the above description, in addition to the existing 30 nm thick InAlGaP BSF layer, another BSF layer (according to the research) [2] has been introduced on top of the existing BSF with a lower contamination concentration. The proposed hardware structure consists of a high BSF bilayer with an exact contamination profile and thickness shown in Figure 8.
In order to improve the performance of the solar cell, modeling and complete optimization of the various layers of the device is essential. Upper cell optimization is performed by keeping all bottom cell parameters constant. The lower thickness of the upper cell is a very important point in the design of Dual-junction solar cells. Because less thickness makes the bottom cell more transparent. Due to the characteristics of the BSF layer, more than one BSF layer has been used in this design.
Most solar cells have a recombination problem. Just when the load carriers are away from the field, recombination occurs when the carriers are shrinking, which directly reduces the efficiency. The BSF layer not only prevents the recombination of carriers, but it is necessary to consider it to increase the overall efficiency of the device. To overcome this problem, we placed another layer of BSF in the top cell to absorb the reflected minority carriers and the majority carriers.
The absorption coefficient of the material is a limited value. Therefore, for a finite layer, it is not possible to absorb all the landing light. If the energy of the landed photon is close to the band gap of the material and the absorption coefficient is smaller than the band gap, light will pass through the material. Thus, the thinner the cell, the more it transmits photons. For a double-bonded cell, the thinning of a layer from the top cell helps distribute light to the lower cell to increase the flow of the top cell. As a result, the top cell should be as thin as possible to allow for higher yields. The generated potential in all layers is shown in Figure 9.
Most of the current produced in the solar cell is mainly produced in the upper cell. Because the upper cell absorbs all the higher energy photons and creates a large number of electron pairs in the cavity. The greatest potential produced is in the area of the tunnel junction. As can be seen, the potential decreases in areas far from the tunnel junction.
We know that the photo generation rate nothing more than measuring the number of carriers produced in each layer of the cell in the presence of radiation. High optical production rate leads to higher efficiency. As the cell operates over a wider range of wavelengths, this rate depends on the optical properties of the material. As we move away from the surface, the photogeneration rate gradually decreases. In the BSF layer, the dispersion of carriers is very low. Therefore, in the BSF region, the photo generation rate is very high, which can be clearly seen in Figure 11. The upper cell is also optimized by keeping all the lower cell parameters constant. Figures 10 and 11 shows the rate of photo generation rate in the solar cell during radiation.
To analyze the effect of the BSF layer, to achieve the best efficiency, we changed the thickness of this layer in the upper cell. The results of the changes are listed in Table 3. It is quite clear from Table 3 that at a thickness of 90 nm, the amount of efficiency will be maximized.
Table 3
Different parameters of the solar cell by changing the thickness of the new BSF layer
Eff(%)
|
FF(%)
|
Voc(V)
|
Jsc(mA/cm2)
|
Thickness (Β΅m)
|
38.8212
|
88.4602
|
2.8563
|
15.3644
|
0.01
|
40.5742
|
88.2485
|
2.8579
|
16.0877
|
0.03
|
42.7806
|
88.1041
|
2.8582
|
16.4846
|
0.05
|
45.8910
|
87.9201
|
2.8591
|
16.9886
|
0.07
|
46.2356
|
87.3216
|
2.8620
|
18.5012
|
0.09
|
46.0163
|
87.4206
|
2.8510
|
18.4282
|
0.1
|