Swedish researchers used silver alloying to enhance the grain development and crystal high quality of the chalcopyrite absorber, which reportedly compensates for its low bandgap power. The scientists created a champion cell based mostly on a ZTO buffer layer.
The researchers of College of Uppsala in Sweden produces chalcopyrite (CuGaSe2 or CGSe) photo voltaic cell through the use of a small quantity of silver (Ag) to combine the system absorber.
“The purpose of our present EU-funded challenge Steady Inorganic TAndem (SITA) photo voltaic cells, is to create a wide-gap chalcopyrite high cell for a tandem PV system with a silicon backside cell,” the researcher mentioned. that’s Jan Keller. pv journal. “So, within the subsequent step we have to transfer the method to clear again contacts. We’ve got demonstrated the potential to provide wide-gap chalcopyrite photo voltaic cells with barely decrease band gaps of about 1.45 eV in clear which is again contact with our earlier work.
Using silver alloying improves grain development and crystal high quality, whereas lowering dangerous defects and compensating for CuGaSe’s low bandgap power.2 sucker CuGaSe2 has a band-gap power of 1.7 eV and has to date been utilized in photo voltaic cells with a restricted fill issue and open-circuit voltage.
“Along with losses immediately associated to CuGaSe2 layer itself, recombination on the entrance interface ought to be pronounced when utilizing a typical cadmium sulfide (CdS) buffer,” mentioned the scientists, who mentioned they examined units with buffer layers of CdS and layers manufactured from zinc tin oxide (ZTO) grown by atomic. layer deposition (ALD).
The analysis group used a three-stage co-evaporation course of to deposit the absorber combined with silver (AGCS) for a number of samples of photo voltaic cells.
“Provider assortment will increase with the addition of Ag, larger deposition temperature, and in direction of stoichiometric absorber composition,” they mentioned. “Gentle soaking will increase the fill issue for many samples, possible by easing inner transport boundaries.”
The champion cell created by the scientists is predicated on a ZTO buffer layer, with the system attaining an influence conversion effectivity of 11.2%.
“That is the very best effectivity ever measured in an ACGS photo voltaic cell with out an anti-reflective coating,” they mentioned. “Potential explanations for the helpful impact of sunshine soaking may very well be the photodoping of the ZTO layer that reduces the efficient barrier peak for electrons, or a redistribution of sodium within the heterojunction.”
The scientists mentioned they plan to make use of clear again contact (TBC) as an alternative of molybdenum (Mo) within the cell to enhance its thermal stability, on account of its anticipated use in tandem units.
They describe the photo voltaic cell expertise of “Silver Alloying in Extremely Environment friendly CuGaSe2 Photo voltaic Cells with Totally different Buffer Layers,” lately printed in RRL Photo voltaic.
This content material is protected by copyright and will not be reused. If you wish to cooperate with us and wish to reuse a few of our content material, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
