Surface plasmon enhanced ultrathin CuZnSnS/crystalline-Si tandem solar cells

• Published in: Nanoscale advances Vol. 5; no. 11; pp. 2887 - 2896
• Main Authors: Jamil, Shafayeth, Saha, Uday, Alam, Md. Kawsar
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: 30.05.2023
• ISSN: 2516-0230
• DOI: 10.1039/d2na00826b

Thin-film silicon solar cells have sparked a great deal of research interest because of their low material usage and cost-effective processing. Despite the potential benefits, thin-film silicon solar cells have low power-conversion efficiency, which limits their commercial usage and mass production. To solve this problem, we design an ultrathin dual junction tandem solar cell with Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) and crystalline silicon (c-Si) as the main absorbing layer for the top and bottom cells, respectively, through optoelectronic simulation. To enhance light absorption in thin-film crystalline silicon, we use silver nanoparticles at the rear end of the bottom cell. We utilize amorphous Si with a c-Si heterojunction to boost the carrier collection efficiency. Computational analyses show that within 9 μm thin-film c-Si, we achieve 28.28% power conversion efficiency with a 220 nm top CZTS layer. These findings will help reduce the amount of Si (∼10 vs. ∼180 μm) in silicon-based solar cells while maintaining high power conversion efficiency. Integration of Ag nanoparticles significantly boosts the higher wavelength light absorption of CZTS/Si tandem solar cells. Computational analyses show that 28.28% power conversion efficiency is achievable by utilizing only 9 μm thin-film c-Si.