High Efficiency Computer Simulation for Au/n-ZnO/p-Si/Al Schottky-Type Thin Film Heterojunctions

In this paper, the Au/n-ZnO/p-Si/Al heterojunction for developing solar cells with high conversion efficiency and low cost were studied. The Au/n-ZnO/p-Si/Al HIT (heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer) solar cells were analyzed and designed by AFORS-HET software. The characteristics of such cells with emitter intrinsic layer thickness and interface states density are discussed. The simulation results show that the key role of the intrinsic layer inserted between the ZnO and crystalline silicon substrate p-Si is to decrease the interface states density. If the interface states density is lower than 1010 cm−2.V−1, a thinner intrinsic layer is better than a thicker one. The increase of the thickness of the emitter will decrease the short-current density and affect the conversion efficiency. The effect of Surface Recombination Velocity (SRV) front and back on the J-V characteristics of the Au/n-ZnO/p-Si/Al heterojunction solar cell has been studied with this simulation. With the optimized parameters set, the Au/n-ZnO/p-Si/Al solar cell reaches a high efficiency (η) up to 21.849 % (FF: 0.834, Voc: 0.666 V, Jsc: 39.39 mA/cm2).