Design of a high efficiency ultrathin CdTe/CdS p-i-n solar cell with optimized thickness and doping density of different layers

Due to the lowest EBPT (energy payback time) and less emitter of GHG (greenhouse gases), it is crucial to enhance the efficiency of CdTe photovoltaic cells. In this paper, a high efficiency CdTe/CdS p-i-n heterostructure solar cell is designed and the performance of the cell is investigated using 1D AMPS (1 dimensional analysis of microelectronic and photonic structures) simulator. The cell consists of a TCO layer (ZnO), a window layer (n-type CdS), an intrinsic layer (CdTe), an absorber layer (p-type CdTe) and a highly doped CdTe as a back surface field (BSF) layer. After the optimization of layer thicknesses and doping densities of different layers, we obtained a conversion efficiency of 26.74% for a total cell thickness of 2.7 m. It is also found that the conversion efficiency can be increased by simply increasing the thickness of intrinsic layer. At 1.5 AM solar irradiance, the proposed cell structure earned a Voc of 1.10 V, a J
sc
of 27.29 mA.cm
⁻²
, and a fill factor of 89.1%, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 26.74%.