Investigation of Using Anti-Reflecting Coatings in CZTS Solar Cells to Enhance the Light Absorption: Optimization by FDTD Method

Subject Areas : Renewable energy

Mina Mirzaei ¹ , Javas Hasanzadeh ² , Ali Abdolahzadeh Ziabari ³ , Mehdi Mirzaei ⁴

1 - Department of Physics- Takestan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Takestan, Iran
2 - Nano Research Laboratory- Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran
3 - Nano Research Laboratory- Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran
4 - Department of Basic Sciences- Miyaneh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Miyaneh, Iran

Received: 2021-01-12 Accepted : 2021-03-18 Published : 2021-11-22

Keywords: CZTS solar cells, external quantum efficiency, anti−reflective coating, finite-difference time-domain (FDTD),

Abstract :

In the few past years, Solar cells based on Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) are very promising thin-film solar cells due to their appropriate absorption coefficient and optical band gap, low-cost, non-radioactive and environmental friendly behavior. However, CZTS devices show poor efficiency and identifying deficiencies and making improvements is necessary. In the present study, various anti-reflection coatings at the top surface of the solar cell were proposed. Minimization of the reflectance is carried out to optimize the thickness of ARC layers using Lumerical software. The density of the short-circuit photocurrent increases from 18.4 mA.cm−2 for solar cells without an antireflection coating to 36 mA.cm−2 for those with MgF2 layer coating.

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