Study of the Tunneling Effect on the Performance of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

In this work, to determine the tunneling effect on the performance of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, we use AFORS-HET software to systematically study the carrier transport mechanism in different forward bias ranges under dark conditions. We confirm that the carrier transport in the p-type SHJ solar cell is determined by the recombination process at lower voltage (V < 0.3 V) and the tunneling current at higher voltage (0.3 < V < 0.6 V). Our results also suggest that the tunneling affected by the interface state density and doping level of a-Si:H influences the performance of devices. Moreover, we propose a new strategy to improve the performance of SHJ solar cells. By optimizing the above parameters, it was possible to increase the efficiency of a-Si:H(n)/c-Si(p)/a-Si:H(p) and a-Si:H(p)/c-Si(n)/a-Si:H(n) SHJ solar cells to 25.40% and 24.45%, respectively, to reduce the influence of the tunneling effect on the device. This work can be a useful reference for solar cell production and preparation.