The effects of insulator thickness and substrate doping density on the performance of ZnO/SiO₂/n-Si solar cells

ABSTRACT

The insulator layer and the substrate material play an important role in determining the performance of metal-insulator-semiconductor type solar cells. Here, the effects of insulator layer thickness and substrate doping density on the efficiency of a ZnO/SiO₂/n-Si solar cell were studied. Semi-analytical calculations wer performed to obtain the current–voltage dark current, efficiency, and current–voltage characteristics of the cell. An efficiency of 20% was obtained with an insulating layer thickness of around 19 Å. It was also found that the efficiency started to decrease when an insulator layer thicknesses greater than the optimum thickness was used. Furthermore, the efficiency of the cells decreased with increasing substrate doping density, and the maximum efficiency was obtained with a substrate doping density of 6 × 10²² m⁻³. By optimizing the insulating layer thickness and substrate doping density an efficiency of 20% was achieved at a cell thickness of 25 μm.

KEYWORDS:

• ZnO/SiO₂/n-Si solar cells
• insulator thickness
• substrate doping density
• efficiency
• tunnelling current

Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by Research, Community Services, and Innovation Program (P3MI) research grant in the fiscal year 2017.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is financially supported by Research, Community Services, and Innovation Program (P3MI) research grant in the fiscal year 2017 under contract no. 1009/I1.C01/PL/2017