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Theoretical study of the effect of (CdS)1-x(ZnS)x buffer layer on the performance of CIGS solar cells

SH. S. ALI1, MAHROUS R. AHMED1, W. S. MOHAMED1,2, H. A. MOHAMED1,*

Affiliation

  1. Physics department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, 82524 Sohag, Egypt
  2. Physics Department, College of Science, Jouf University, Al-Jouf, Sakaka, P.O. Box 2014, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Photovoltaic solar cell is one of the most important renewable energy sources. Solar cells based on thin-film layers are considered as promising photovoltaic and offer a number of interesting advantages compared to the bulk silicon devices. In all thin-film solar cells, CdS layer is applied as a heterojunction partner with CdTe, CuInS2 and CuInGaS2 (CIGS). Adding wide bandgap materials such as ZnS to CdS can led to increase the energy gap of CdS and allow more photons in short wavelength to pass through it and reach the absorber layer. In this work, the effect of (CdS)1-x:(ZnS)x(x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) on the performance of CIGS solar cells are studied theoretically. The short-circuit current density (JSC), open-circuit voltage (Vo), fill factor (FF) and the cell efficiency (η) have been estimated. The optical and recombination losses have been taken into consideration. Adding ZnS to CdS leads to a significant improvement in the performance of CIGS solar cells. Our results show that at x-ratio equals 0.5, the JSC increases by 18% and the optical losses decrease by more than 25%. The optical losses have significant effect on JSC more than the effect of recombination losses. The CIGS efficiency increases from 14.7% to 17.72% for x=0 and x=0.5, respectively..

Keywords

CdS, ZnS, CIGS, Thin-film solar cells, Optical losses, Recombination losses.

Submitted at: Feb. 13, 2021
Accepted at: Aug. 10, 2023

Citation

SH. S. ALI, MAHROUS R. AHMED, W. S. MOHAMED, H. A. MOHAMED, Theoretical study of the effect of (CdS)1-x(ZnS)x buffer layer on the performance of CIGS solar cells, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 25, Iss. 7-8, pp. 334-339 (2023)