Simulation of p-type c-Si solar cells with metal oxides as carrier-selective contacts

The silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell has been one of the most promising candidates for the photovoltaic (PV) market because of its high efficiency, simple structure and mature fabrication process. By replacing the p type and n-type doped silicon layers with metal oxides, the so-called dopant-free asymmetric heterocontacts (DASH) solar cell can be formed, which will be easy to achieve full-surface passivation and selective carrier transport. In this study, the AFORS-HET software was used to simulate the Ag grid/ITO/ZnO/c-Si(p)/MoOX/Ag device configuration, in which ZnO was used as electron-selective contact and MoOX as hole-selective contact. The influence of work function (WF) of MoOX layer, thickness and doping concentration of ZnO layer, doping concentration of crystalline silicon (c-Si) layer on the device performance were investigated. The simulation results demonstrated that the application of ZnO layer and MoOX layer as carrier-selective layers can significantly increase the open-circuit voltage (V-OC) and short-circuit current density (J(SC)). After a series of optimization, the simulated champion conversion efficiency (Eff) can reach 27.64 %, which will provide meaningful information for subsequent experiment research of DASH solar cells.

Automated summary

This study investigated the potential of using metal oxides to construct DASH solar cells through simulation analysis. It was found that the use of ZnO and MoOX as carrier-selective layers can significantly improve the performance of the cells, with a maximum simulated conversion efficiency of 27.64%.