Effects of grain boundaries on cell performance.pdfVIP

Solar Energy Materials Solar Cells 74 (2002) 331–337 Effects of grain boundaries on cell performance of poly-silicon thin film solar cells by 2-D simulation a b a, Tomoya Fujisaki , Akira Yamada , Makoto Konagai * a Department of Physical Electronics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan b Research Center for Quantum Effect Electronics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan Abstract The effect of grain boundaries on the performance of poly-Si thin film solar cells was studied theoretically using a 2-D simulation assuming the presence of either rectangular-shaped or graded width grain boundaries in the i-layer of p/i/n structure of solar cells. The grain boundary had an adverse effect mainly on V : J gradually increased and saturated with oc sc increasing solar cell thickness in cells without grain boundaries, whereas it reached a maximum for an i-layer thickness of 5 mm in polycrystalline silicon cells. The calculation using the graded width model showed that the efficiency of the p + + /p /n structure was better than that of the p + + /n /n structure. A slight p-type doping of the i-layer was found to be effective in improving cell performance. r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Polycrystalline silicon; Thin film; Solar cell; Grain boundary; 2-D simulation 1. Introduction Thin film polycrystal