Self-consistent simulation of CdTe solar cells with active defects

Brinkman, Daniel; Guo, Da; Akis, Richard; Ringhofer, Christian; Sankin, Igor; Fang, Tian; Vasileska, Dragica

doi:10.1063/1.4927155

Title: Self-consistent simulation of CdTe solar cells with active defects

Abstract

We demonstrate a self-consistent numerical scheme for simulating an electronic device which contains active defects. As a specific case, we consider copper defects in cadmium telluride solar cells. The presence of copper has been shown experimentally to play a crucial role in predicting device performance. The primary source of this copper is migration away from the back contact during annealing, which likely occurs predominantly along grain boundaries. We introduce a mathematical scheme for simulating this effect in 2D and explain the numerical implementation of the system. Lastly, we will give numerical results comparing our results to known 1D simulations to demonstrate the accuracy of the solver and then show results unique to the 2D case.

Authors:

Brinkman, Daniel ^[1]; Guo, Da ^[1]; Akis, Richard ^[1]; Ringhofer, Christian ^[1]; Sankin, Igor ^[2]; Fang, Tian ^[2]; Vasileska, Dragica ^[1]

Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
First Solar, Perrysburg, OH (United States)

Publication Date:: Tue Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015

Research Org.:: Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1237015

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1228689

Report Number(s):: DOE-ASU-0006344-5
Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979; JAPIAU

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0006344

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Journal of Applied Physics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 118; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats


                    Brinkman, Daniel, Guo, Da, Akis, Richard, Ringhofer, Christian, Sankin, Igor, Fang, Tian, and Vasileska, Dragica. Self-consistent simulation of CdTe solar cells with active defects.  United States: N. p., 2015. 
Web.  doi:10.1063/1.4927155.

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                    Brinkman, Daniel, Guo, Da, Akis, Richard, Ringhofer, Christian, Sankin, Igor, Fang, Tian, & Vasileska, Dragica. Self-consistent simulation of CdTe solar cells with active defects.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4927155

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                    Brinkman, Daniel, Guo, Da, Akis, Richard, Ringhofer, Christian, Sankin, Igor, Fang, Tian, and Vasileska, Dragica. Tue .  
"Self-consistent simulation of CdTe solar cells with active defects".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4927155.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1237015.

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@article{osti_1237015,

  title        = {Self-consistent simulation of CdTe solar cells with active defects},

  author       = {Brinkman, Daniel and Guo, Da and Akis, Richard and Ringhofer, Christian and Sankin, Igor and Fang, Tian and Vasileska, Dragica},

  abstractNote = {We demonstrate a self-consistent numerical scheme for simulating an electronic device which contains active defects. As a specific case, we consider copper defects in cadmium telluride solar cells. The presence of copper has been shown experimentally to play a crucial role in predicting device performance. The primary source of this copper is migration away from the back contact during annealing, which likely occurs predominantly along grain boundaries. We introduce a mathematical scheme for simulating this effect in 2D and explain the numerical implementation of the system. Lastly, we will give numerical results comparing our results to known 1D simulations to demonstrate the accuracy of the solver and then show results unique to the 2D case.},

  doi          = {10.1063/1.4927155},

  journal      = {Journal of Applied Physics},

  number       = 3,

  volume       = 118,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015},

  month        = {Tue Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015}

}

Copy to clipboard

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Kinetic Simulations of Cu Doping in Chlorinated CdSeTe PV Absorbers
journal, February 2019

Sankin, Igor; Krasikov, Dmitry
physica status solidi (a), Vol. 216, Issue 15
DOI: 10.1002/pssa.201800887

Metastability and reliability of CdTe solar cells
journal, March 2018

Guo, Da; Brinkman, Daniel; Shaik, Abdul R.
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 51, Issue 15
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/aab1e1

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Similar Records

Title: Self-consistent simulation of CdTe solar cells with active defects

Abstract

Citation Formats

Semiconducting Cadmium Telluride journal, December 1954

Photoconductivity of the Sulfide, Selenide, and Telluride of Zinc or Cadmium journal, January 1955

CdTe solar cells and photovoltaic heterojunctions in II–VI compounds journal, May 1963

Properties of Photovoltaic Films of CdTe journal, January 1958

Solar cell efficiency tables (Version 45): Solar cell efficiency tables journal, December 2014

Sulfur diffusion in cadmium telluride thin films journal, May 2003

The segregation of copper at high angle grain boundaries in lead journal, January 1970

Spatial origin of various PL lines in CdTe at 77 K journal, January 1988

Copper inclusion and migration from the back contact in CdTe solar cells journal, March 2004

Effects of Cu on CdTe∕CdS Heterojunction Solar Cells with Au/Cu Contacts journal, January 1995

Copper migration in cdte heterojunction solar cells journal, July 1996

Numerical analysis of heterostructure semiconductor devices journal, September 1983

Nonequilibrium point defects and diffusion in silicon journal, October 1994

Cu-related recombination in CdS/CdTe solar cells journal, February 2008

Grain-Boundary-Enhanced Carrier Collection in CdTe Solar Cells journal, April 2014

Measurement of Chlorine Concentrations at CdTe Grain Boundaries journal, November 2014

First-principles multiple-barrier diffusion theory: The case study of interstitial diffusion in CdTe journal, February 2015

Stability and electronic structure of the low- Σ grain boundaries in CdTe: a density functional study journal, January 2015

Simulation of Current Transport in Polycrystalline CdTe Solar Cells journal, August 2013

From Process to Modules: End-to-End Modeling of CSS-Deposited CdTe Solar Cells journal, May 2014

Calculation of Diffusion Penetration Curves for Surface and Grain Boundary Diffusion journal, January 1951

CXXXVIII. Concentration contours in grain boundary diffusion journal, December 1954

The analysis of grain boundary diffusion measurements journal, June 1963

Exact Solutions of Two Ideal Cases in Grain Boundary Diffusion Problem and the Application to Sectioning Method journal, June 1964

An improved procedure for determining grain boundary diffusion coefficients from averaged concentration profiles journal, March 2008

Enhanced diffusivity by triple junction networks journal, January 2005

Diffusion in an ensemble of intersecting grain boundaries forming a triple junction journal, October 2009

Large-signal analysis of a silicon Read diode oscillator journal, January 1969

A self-consistent iterative scheme for one-dimensional steady state transistor calculations journal, October 1964

On the Construction and Comparison of Difference Schemes journal, September 1968

Discretization schemes for high-frequency semiconductor device models journal, March 1997

A new Control Volume Finite Element Method for the stable and accurate solution of the drift–diffusion equations on general unstructured grids journal, February 2013

Two-Dimensional Exponential Fitting and Applications to Drift-Diffusion Models journal, December 1989

Multi-Species Diffusion in CdTe journal, August 2009

Point defects and diffusion in cadmium telluride journal, January 2004

Kinetic Simulations of Cu Doping in Chlorinated CdSeTe PV Absorbers journal, February 2019

Metastability and reliability of CdTe solar cells journal, March 2018

Semiconducting Cadmium Telluride
journal, December 1954

Photoconductivity of the Sulfide, Selenide, and Telluride of Zinc or Cadmium
journal, January 1955

CdTe solar cells and photovoltaic heterojunctions in II–VI compounds
journal, May 1963

Properties of Photovoltaic Films of CdTe
journal, January 1958

Solar cell efficiency tables (Version 45): Solar cell efficiency tables
journal, December 2014

Sulfur diffusion in cadmium telluride thin films
journal, May 2003

The segregation of copper at high angle grain boundaries in lead
journal, January 1970

Spatial origin of various PL lines in CdTe at 77 K
journal, January 1988

Copper inclusion and migration from the back contact in CdTe solar cells
journal, March 2004

Effects of Cu on CdTe∕CdS Heterojunction Solar Cells with Au/Cu Contacts
journal, January 1995

Copper migration in cdte heterojunction solar cells
journal, July 1996

Numerical analysis of heterostructure semiconductor devices
journal, September 1983

Nonequilibrium point defects and diffusion in silicon
journal, October 1994

Cu-related recombination in CdS/CdTe solar cells
journal, February 2008

Grain-Boundary-Enhanced Carrier Collection in CdTe Solar Cells
journal, April 2014

Measurement of Chlorine Concentrations at CdTe Grain Boundaries
journal, November 2014

First-principles multiple-barrier diffusion theory: The case study of interstitial diffusion in CdTe
journal, February 2015

Stability and electronic structure of the low- Σ grain boundaries in CdTe: a density functional study
journal, January 2015

Simulation of Current Transport in Polycrystalline CdTe Solar Cells
journal, August 2013

From Process to Modules: End-to-End Modeling of CSS-Deposited CdTe Solar Cells
journal, May 2014

Calculation of Diffusion Penetration Curves for Surface and Grain Boundary Diffusion
journal, January 1951

CXXXVIII. Concentration contours in grain boundary diffusion
journal, December 1954

The analysis of grain boundary diffusion measurements
journal, June 1963

Exact Solutions of Two Ideal Cases in Grain Boundary Diffusion Problem and the Application to Sectioning Method
journal, June 1964

An improved procedure for determining grain boundary diffusion coefficients from averaged concentration profiles
journal, March 2008

Enhanced diffusivity by triple junction networks
journal, January 2005

Diffusion in an ensemble of intersecting grain boundaries forming a triple junction
journal, October 2009

Large-signal analysis of a silicon Read diode oscillator
journal, January 1969

A self-consistent iterative scheme for one-dimensional steady state transistor calculations
journal, October 1964

On the Construction and Comparison of Difference Schemes
journal, September 1968

Discretization schemes for high-frequency semiconductor device models
journal, March 1997

A new Control Volume Finite Element Method for the stable and accurate solution of the drift–diffusion equations on general unstructured grids
journal, February 2013

Two-Dimensional Exponential Fitting and Applications to Drift-Diffusion Models
journal, December 1989

Multi-Species Diffusion in CdTe
journal, August 2009

Point defects and diffusion in cadmium telluride
journal, January 2004

Kinetic Simulations of Cu Doping in Chlorinated CdSeTe PV Absorbers
journal, February 2019

Metastability and reliability of CdTe solar cells
journal, March 2018