Optimisation of the performance of thin film solar cells

Gandham, B. (1979) Optimisation of the performance of thin film solar cells. Doctoral thesis, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic.

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Abstract

The thesis contains a short review of the theory of solar cells and optical properties of thin films. This is followed by the introduction of the "interference solar cell" which regards the cell as part of a multilayer structure and considers the effects of multiple reflections at each interface of the cell. Models for normal and oblique incidence of light are presented both in the presence of drift fields and in their absence.
This involves a complete novel approach resulting in the solution for the photogeneration rate as a function of position, computed by solving Maxwell's equations in a cell assumed to be composed of optically flat parallel layers. The photogenerated current is computed and the effects of varying the transport parameters and layer thicknesses are shown for Cu2S-CdS Cds-InP and Cds-CuIn Se2 cells with silver, zinc, and molybdenum substrates. It is shown that the optimum thickness of Cu2S and CuInSe2 is 0.1nm - 0.2nm whilst the optimum for InP is about 3nm. Experimental evidence is presented to support an additional prediction that silver is superior to zinc or molybdenum substrates.
The effect of various antireflective coatings has been analysed theoretically and the conditions for maximum transmittance through a metal layer into an absorbing substrate have been derived. In order to compare theory with experiment, a small programme on Schottky barrier cells is described and comparisons made.

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