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Optimized CIGS based solar cell towardsan efficient solar cell: impact of layers thickness and doping

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Abstract

This paper presents a numerical simulation study of copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) thin film solar cells. An electron back reflector layer (EBR) is added to the conventional CIGS structure to minimize the recombination of the carriers at the back contact, and then absorber thickness can be further decreased. The impacts of thickness and carrier concentration variations of the CIGS cell structure are investigated to optimize the performance of the solar cell using the simulator SCAPS. The proposed CIGS solar cell achieved a significant improvement in the conversion efficiency of 27.652%, which is more than 43% higher than those previously reported in the literature for the CIGS solar cells. The proposed work does not only greatly improve the efficiency but also the overall thickness of the CIGS layers are dramatically decreased to 505 nm. That is already 3 to 4 times less than the average thickness reported for the conventional CIGS solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the University of Gent, Belgium for providing the opportunity to use SCAPS simulation software.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electronics and Communication Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Technology, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, AbouKir, P.O.B. 1029, Cairo, Alexandria, Egypt

    Yasmina Osman, Mostafa Fedawy, Mohamed Abaza & Moustafa H. Aly

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  1. Yasmina Osman
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  2. Mostafa Fedawy
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  3. Mohamed Abaza
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  4. Moustafa H. Aly
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Correspondence to Moustafa H. Aly.

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Osman, Y., Fedawy, M., Abaza, M. et al. Optimized CIGS based solar cell towardsan efficient solar cell: impact of layers thickness and doping. Opt Quant Electron 53, 245 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-021-02873-4

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