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Effect of introducing Al2O3 as a tunnelling layer into p-CBTS/n-CdS heterojunction solar cells

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Abstract

We have studied the effect of introducing an insulating ultrathin Al2O3 with a very wide band gap (~ 7 eV) into a CBTS/CdS heterojunction to analyze the tunnelling effect in a Mo/MoS2/CBTS/Al2O3/CdS/ZnO/AZO/Al solar cell using experimentally calibrated numerical simulation. We first investigated the intra-band tunnelling of electrons from the p-CBTS absorber to the n-CdS emitter through the insulator layer (Al2O3). In the second analysis set, we found that the thickness of Al2O3 must be sufficient (~ 3 nm) to allow the minority carrier penetration. It is shown that the CBTS/Al2O3/CdS structure enhances the collection efficiency in the short- and long-wavelength regions, resulting in higher performance. Indeed, with an Al2O3 layer between CBTS and CdS, the device exhibits efficiency of 11.89% with VOC, JSC, and FF of 1.08 V, 15.45 mA/cm2 and 71.41%, respectively, compared to the device without Al2O3, which presents an efficiency of 6.75%, VOC = 0.69 V, JSC = 15.09 mA/cm2 and FF = 64.84%. This study provides a guide to further optimise the performance of kesterite solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Marc Burgelman, University of Ghent, Belgium, for providing the SCAPS-1D simulator. This work was supported by the University-Training Research Projects, and the General manager of Scientific Research and Technological Development (DGRSDT), Algeria.

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The authors declare that no funds or grants were received from any institutions for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Elaboration and Characterization Physico-Mechanical and Metallurgical of Materials Laboratory (ECP3M), Université Abdelhamid Ibn Badis Mostaganem, Route Nationale N°11, Kharrouba, 27000, Mostaganem, Algeria

    Wafaâ Henni & Abdelkader Boukortt

  2. Laboratory of Analysis and Application of Radiation, Faculty of Physics, University of Sciences and Technology of Oran Mohamed Boudiaf, USTO-MB, Bir El Djir, Oran, Algeria

    Wassila Leila Rahal

  3. Physics Department, Université Abdelhamid Ibn Badis Mostaganem, Chemin des Crêtes, 27000, Mostaganem, Algeria

    Wassila Leila Rahal

  4. Laboratory of Plasma Physics, Conductive Materials and their Applications (LPPMCA), University of Science and Technology of Oran Mohamed Boudiaf, USTO-MB, Bir El Djir, Oran, Algeria

    Djaaffar Rached

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  1. Wafaâ Henni
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  2. Wassila Leila Rahal
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  3. Djaaffar Rached
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  4. Abdelkader Boukortt
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Contributions

WH contributed to conceptualization, data curation, methodology, investigation, and writing—original draft. WLR contributed to conceptualization, writing, methodology, investigation, supervision. DR contributed to investigation, supervision, review and editing. AB contributed to validation and supervision.

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Correspondence to Wafaâ Henni.

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Henni, W., Rahal, W.L., Rached, D. et al. Effect of introducing Al2O3 as a tunnelling layer into p-CBTS/n-CdS heterojunction solar cells. J Comput Electron 22, 897–905 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-023-02031-x

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