Improving the performance of pin solar cell by optimizing its active layer

Saidi, Mellal; Nahla, Djebari; Toufik, Ziar

Journal of Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Sciences (JMEC)
Volume 0, Numéro 0, Pages 15-19
2022-07-15

Improving The Performance Of Pin Solar Cell By Optimizing Its Active Layer

Authors : Saidi Mellal . Nahla Djebari . Toufik Ziar .

Abstract

Efficiency of solar cell depends on absorbed photons and electron-hole pairs (carriers) generated in space charge region, the thickness of which has to be well chosen since the photocurrent is essentially due to the photogeneration of carriers in this region. It is therefore wise to artificially increase thickness of the space charge region by interposing an intrinsic layer I between the regions P and N, to obtain a PIN solar cell. In hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) PIN solar cell, a thick absorber layer (i-layer) can absorb more light to generate carriers, however, a thicker i-layer degrades drift electric field for carrier transport. On the other hand, a thin i-layer cannot absorb enough light. Thickness of i-layer is a key parameter that can limit the performance of amorphous thin film solar cells. In this context, we sought to improve the performance of PIN solar cell by optimizing the i-layer thickness. for this purpose, we have used Matlab software to carry out our simulations. Maximum efficiency of the cell is obtained at the 1.1 µm of thickness of i-layer.