Accurate Data Extraction Approach for Absorption Coefficient Calculation in Solar Cell Application

Incident of light energy generates an electron-hole pair in a solar cell. One of the parameters that affect the generation of the electron-hole pair is absorption coefficient. The absorption coefficient values corresponding to the wavelength for different materials are different. For theoretical analysis of solar cell modeling, these values are very crucial; however, the model equations are not sufficient for extraction of absorption coefficient values for different materials. In this paper, using interpolation technique (Newton forward, Newton backward and Lagrangian interpolation), a model is proposed for generating absorption coefficient values with the corresponding wavelength for solar radiation. Accordingly, an absorption coefficient calculator (ACC) is developed which provides absorption coefficient values for a given wavelength. One can use ACC to obtain absorption coefficient values for a wide range of wavelength of solar radiation. ACC can be used for materials like crystalline, microcrystalline, nano-crystalline and amorphous based Silicon materials and compound semiconductors, like Gallium Arsenide, Copper Indium Gallium Selenide, and Cadmium Telluride.