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Equivalent-circuit Modeling of Microcrystalline Silicon pin Solar Cells prepared over a Wide Range of Absorber-layer Compositions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Steve Reynolds  and
Vladimir Smirnov
Steve Reynolds
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
Vladimir Smirnov
Affiliation:
[email protected], Forschungszentrum Juelich, IEF-5 Photovoltaik, Leo-Brandt str, Juelich, 52428, Germany
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Abstract

An equivalent-circuit electrical model is used to simulate the photovoltaic properties of mixed-phase thin-film silicon solar cells. Microcrystalline and amorphous phases are represented as separate parallel-connected photodiode equivalent circuits, scaled by assuming that the photodiode area is directly proportional to the volume fraction of each phase. A reasonable correspondence between experiment and simulation is obtained for short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage vs. volume fraction. However the large dip in fill-factor and reduced PV efficiency measured for cells prepared in the low-crystalline region is inadequately reproduced. It is concluded that poor PV performance in this region is not due solely to shunting by more highly-crystalline filaments, which supports the view that the low-crystalline material has transport properties inferior to either microcrystalline or amorphous silicon.

Keywords

amorphousthin filmSi
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1245: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology-2010 , 2010 , 1245-A07-17
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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