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Modeling and Simulation of CZTS Thin-Film Solar Cell for Efficiency Enhancement

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Abstract

CZTS solar cells have been utilized as a replacement for CIGS and CdTe solar cells in thin-film technology. With the better absorption coefficient of this material, it has achieved efficiency higher than 13%. In this work, the performance of a CZTS thin-film solar cell (TFSC) is analyzed by replacing intrinsic ZnO (i-ZnO) with Mg-doped ZnO as window layer material. i-ZnO has good optical and electrical characteristics, but the optical, electrical, and morphological characteristics of Mg-doped ZnO are more promising for its application as window layer material in CZTS thin-film solar cells. The electrical properties of the solar cell are analyzed in the Silvaco TCAD under AM 1.5G illumination. A sharp increase in the performance of the solar cell is observed. Because of the higher transmittance of Mg-doped ZnO, the current density increases. With varying thickness of the window layer and absorber layer, the results in this work reveal maximum efficiency of 19.57%. Variations in the current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), and fill factor (FF %) are also observed. The proposed structure of the thin-film CZTS solar cell shows good performance by enhancing its efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

This publication is an outcome of the CSIR project (Grant No. 22(0830)/19/EMR-II) of the Govt. of India and the ASEAN-India Collaborative R&D project under the ASEAN-India S&T Development Fund (AISTDF) (Grant No. IMRC/AISTDF/CRD/2018/000068) by DST-SERB, Govt. of India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Silchar, Assam, 788010, India

    Rabin Paul, T. R. Lenka & F. A. Talukdar

  2. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Geethanjali College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, Medchal District, 501301, Telangana, India

    S. Vallisree

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  1. Rabin Paul
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Correspondence to T. R. Lenka.

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Paul, R., Vallisree, S., Lenka, T.R. et al. Modeling and Simulation of CZTS Thin-Film Solar Cell for Efficiency Enhancement. J. Electron. Mater. 51, 2228–2235 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-022-09449-2

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