Performance improvement of ultra-thin CIGS solar cells with decrease in light loss by surface texturing

• DOI: 10.1007/s12648-020-01888-z
• Publication Date: 2020-10-27T11:03:44Z
• Authors: Mojtaba Amiri; Abdollah Eskandarian; Ali Abdolahzadeh ...
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology; 7. Clean energy

The main objective of the present study is to present a solution for downsizing the promising CIGS solar cells in order to be more flexible, economic and environmentally friendly. To avoid possible degradations due to downsizing, a series of optimizations were performed. ATLAS and DEVEDIT of SILVACO tool were used for simulations. After verification of the accuracy of simulation process, surface texturing was used to reduce light reflections and enhance the light trapping of an ultra-thin CIGS solar cell (thickness = 0.5 µm). Compared with the results of non-textured solar cells all output parameters showed a notable improvement. Replacement of CdS buffer by ZnO layer led to further enhancement of the output parameters. In the following step, a dual-grading profile was used to increase the electron–hole generation. Successful combination of the performed optimizations resulted in high conversion efficiency of 18.62% for an ultra-thin CIGS solar cell.