Investigation of thin-film p-BaSi2/n-CdS heterostructure towards semiconducting silicide based high efficiency solar cell

In this article, semiconducting Barium Silicide (BaSi2) absorber based Al/SnO2: F/CdS/ BaSi2: B/Cu novel heterostructure thin-film solar cell (TFSC) has been studied in details. The solar cell has been numerically simulated and intensely analyzed by Solar cell Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS). Layer thickness was varied from 100 to 3000 nm for p(+)-BaSi2 absorber, 20 to 200 nm for both n-CdS buffer, and n(+)-SnO2:F window layers to optimize the device. Hitherwards, the impurities concentration for acceptor (NA) and donor (ND) ions was optimized for each layer through ample variation. The influence of single-donor and acceptor type bulk defect densities has been investigated thoroughly in p(+)-BaSi2 and n-CdS materials, respectively. An efficiency >30% is achievable ideally with a 2 mu m thick BaSi2 absorber without incorporating defects whereas it reduces to 26.32% with only 1.2 mu m thick absorber including certain amount of defects. Cell thermal stability and alteration of cell parameters were studied under cell operating temperature from 273 to 473 degrees K. Finally, the effect of series (R-s) and shunt (R-sh) resistances on proposed cell has been investigated meticulously. This newly designed solar cell structure proclaims the chance of fabricating a resourceful, low cost, and highly efficient TFSC near future.