Modeling and Performance Analysis of Highly Efficient Copper Indium Gallium Selenide Solar Cell with Cu2O Hole Transport Layer Using Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator in One Dimension

Herein, the widely available and cheapest cuprous oxide (Cu2O) as hole transport layer (HTL) is proposed to improve the performance of thin-film copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cell. Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator in One Dimension (SCAPS-1D) is utilized to design and study output characteristics of the modeled photovoltaic (PV) cell. A comparison between the proposed cell with Cu2O HTL and the reference CIGS solar cell is presented. The PV performances of CIGS solar cells are analyzed by changing thickness, carrier density and defects of different layers, operating temperatures, and recombination velocity at back contact. Optimal thicknesses of Cu2O HTL, CIGS absorber, cadmium sulfide (CdS) buffer, and the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) window layer are obtained to be 0.3, 0.8, 0.05, and 0.05 mu m, respectively. Efficiency of 30.30% is achieved for the proposed CIGS PV device with Cu2O HTL. The simulated results imply that the proposed Cu2O as HTL can be used to show proficient and cost-effective thin-film CIGS PV cells.