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Efficiency enhancement of Cu2BaSnS4 experimental thin-film solar cell by device modeling

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Abstract

Copper barium tin sulfide (CBTS) is a direct band gap earth abundant, non-toxic and quaternary semiconductor compound. It is used as absorber because of its direct band gap of 1.9 eV. A numerical guide is proposed for CBTS-based photovoltaic cell to enhance the efficiency of experimentally designed device with introducing Cu2O as back surface field (BSF) layer by means of numerical modeling. Device optimization was performed in SCAPS–1D software under 1.5 AM illumination spectrum. After introducing BSF layer and optimized physical parameters, promising result was achieved with PCE of 9.72%, Voc of 0.81 V, Jsc of 15.73 mA/cm2 and FF of 78.23%. The promising outcomes of this work will give a guideline for the feasible production of high-efficiency inorganic CBTS-based photovoltaic cells.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (ENE2016-77798-C4-2-R) and Generalitat valenciana (Prometeus 2014/044).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Design Engineering, Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Camí de Vera, Valencia, Spain

    Yousaf Hameed Khattak, Faisal Baig, Hanae Toura & Bernabé Marí Soucase

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Yousaf Hameed Khattak & Faisal Baig

  3. Department of Chemistry, Laboratory Materials and Environment Engineering: Modeling and Application, University Ibn Tofail, Kenitra, Morocco

    Hanae Toura

  4. COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Saira Beg

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  1. Yousaf Hameed Khattak
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Khattak, Y.H., Baig, F., Toura, H. et al. Efficiency enhancement of Cu2BaSnS4 experimental thin-film solar cell by device modeling. J Mater Sci 54, 14787–14796 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03942-6

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