Numerical simulation of the electrical characteristics of CIGS/CdS/ZnO solar cell heterostructures

The electrical characteristics of CIGS-based solar cell heterostructure have been simulated by numerically solving the basic semiconductor equations by means of a finite differences method based on a Scharfetter-Gummel discretization scheme. The electric potential, electric field, carrier concentrations, current densities and recombination rates are obtained as function of the space coordinate and the bias voltage. Starting with the analysis of a single absorber layer structure sandwiched between two metal electrodes, we subsequently studied the properties of the CIGS/ZnO pn heterojunction and the influence of the buffer layer thickness in the CIGS/CdS/ZnO on the cell electrical response. A special focus was also given to the influence of grain boundaries in the bulk of CIGS depending on the defects nature and concentration. Electrical measurements including admittance spectroscopy were performed on samples for comparison to be further lead.
Motivations
This research is part of the project IQuaReS (Innovative in-line Quality control for
Renewable Solar solutions) that aims to develop an in-line quality control tool for manufactured CIGS-based solar cells, based on electrical and optoelectrical, preferably non-invasive measurement methods. Exploratory simulations aim to isolate signature patterns that could be sought in experimental measurements .