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Title: Photon and carrier management design for nonplanar thin-film copper indium gallium selenide photovoltaics

Journal Article · · Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [1]
  1. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL)
  3. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); NG Next, Northrup Grumman Aerospace Systems, Redondo Beach, CA (United States)
  4. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); Charles Stark Draper Lab., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  5. HelioVolt Corporation, Austin, TX (United States); Siva Power, Santa Clara, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Nonplanar structured photovoltaic absorber design has potential to achieve high solar cell efficiency with significantly reduced material use. We report optoelectronic simulations that highlight photon and generated carrier management opportunities for improvement of thin film Cu(InxGa1-x)Se2 (CIGS) device performance. Structures realized via either self-assembly or patterning via nanoimprint lithography, and also a combination of both are predicted to exhibit significant increases in short circuit current density and open circuit voltage simultaneously. The structures investigated include: 1) self-assembled nonplanar structures that strongly scatter incident light and enhance carrier generation near regions of high electric potential, 2) lithographicallypatterned embedded periodic dielectric structures, 3) planar dielectric layers that separate the CIGS absorber from the molybdenum back-contact via reduced-area contacts that minimize optical and electronic losses, 4) a combination of these for combined effects. We find that the self-assembled nonplanar CIGS cells with 700 nm planar equivalent thickness, combined with dielectric separation layers yield increases in short circuit current density and open circuit voltage up to 3.4 mA cm-2 and 29 mV, respectively. The absolute efficiency increases from 15.4% to 18.1%, compared to the predicted efficiency for planar CIGS thin film cells of equivalent thickness. The addition of a single layer MgF2 anti-reflection coating brings the maximum predicted efficiency up to 19.7% for randomly textured devices.

Research Organization:
Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0004946; SC0004993
OSTI ID:
1579810
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1398609
Journal Information:
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 161, Issue C; ISSN 0927-0248
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 7 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

An improved design approach for thin film solar cells journal August 2018
CuInSe2 nanotube arrays for efficient solar energy conversion journal November 2019
Novel patterning of CdS / CdTe thin film with back contacts for photovoltaic application journal March 2018

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14 SOLAR ENERGY
Solar cells
Thin film
Light trapping
CIGS
Nanotextured