Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Lopes, Tomás Sousa
Data de Publicação: 2018
Tipo de documento: Dissertação
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/53147
Resumo: Thin film, CIGS solar cells were able to achieve efficiency values higher than multicristalline silicon solar cells (22.9 % vs 22.3 %). However, a possible In scarcity, may increase its production costs, hence decreasing the CIGS thickness is of upmost importance for the technology to stay cost-competitive. However, when decreasing the CIGS thickness two main efficiency limitations arise; rear contact recombination and optical losses due to incomplete light absorption. The main focus of this thesis is to increase the rear optical reflection of an ultrathin CIGS solar cell. For that, six different metals (Ag, Au, Cu, Ta, Ti and Zn) and two metallic alloys (AlSiCu and TiW) were tested as possible candidates for increasing the rear optical reflection and a nanopattern point structure was employed with Al2O3 as the passivation layer. Optical simulations were conducted to verify which metals gives the highest enhancement at increasing the light absorption in the CIGS layer. The solar cells fabricated were heavily affected by the reaction of the metal layer with the CIGS. As such, an alternative solar cell architecture was developed to prevent such reaction by depositing a Mo layer to cover the point contacts. In the end, the solar cell that incorporate a TiW layer, managed to achieve a 3.69 % (absolute) enhancement in efficiency values over the reference solar cell.
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spelling Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cellsCIGSmetallic layerrear reflectionoptical simulationTiWDomínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos MateriaisThin film, CIGS solar cells were able to achieve efficiency values higher than multicristalline silicon solar cells (22.9 % vs 22.3 %). However, a possible In scarcity, may increase its production costs, hence decreasing the CIGS thickness is of upmost importance for the technology to stay cost-competitive. However, when decreasing the CIGS thickness two main efficiency limitations arise; rear contact recombination and optical losses due to incomplete light absorption. The main focus of this thesis is to increase the rear optical reflection of an ultrathin CIGS solar cell. For that, six different metals (Ag, Au, Cu, Ta, Ti and Zn) and two metallic alloys (AlSiCu and TiW) were tested as possible candidates for increasing the rear optical reflection and a nanopattern point structure was employed with Al2O3 as the passivation layer. Optical simulations were conducted to verify which metals gives the highest enhancement at increasing the light absorption in the CIGS layer. The solar cells fabricated were heavily affected by the reaction of the metal layer with the CIGS. As such, an alternative solar cell architecture was developed to prevent such reaction by depositing a Mo layer to cover the point contacts. In the end, the solar cell that incorporate a TiW layer, managed to achieve a 3.69 % (absolute) enhancement in efficiency values over the reference solar cell.Salomé, PedroMendes, ManuelRUNLopes, Tomás Sousa2018-11-29T15:43:55Z2018-1020182018-10-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesisapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10362/53147enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2024-03-11T04:25:38Zoai:run.unl.pt:10362/53147Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-20T03:32:25.542274Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells
title Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells
spellingShingle Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells
Lopes, Tomás Sousa
CIGS
metallic layer
rear reflection
optical simulation
TiW
Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos Materiais
title_short Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells
title_full Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells
title_fullStr Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells
title_full_unstemmed Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells
title_sort Metal layer for enhanceng optical reflection in passivation layers in thin-film solar cells
author Lopes, Tomás Sousa
author_facet Lopes, Tomás Sousa
author_role author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Salomé, Pedro
Mendes, Manuel
RUN
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Lopes, Tomás Sousa
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv CIGS
metallic layer
rear reflection
optical simulation
TiW
Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos Materiais
topic CIGS
metallic layer
rear reflection
optical simulation
TiW
Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos Materiais
description Thin film, CIGS solar cells were able to achieve efficiency values higher than multicristalline silicon solar cells (22.9 % vs 22.3 %). However, a possible In scarcity, may increase its production costs, hence decreasing the CIGS thickness is of upmost importance for the technology to stay cost-competitive. However, when decreasing the CIGS thickness two main efficiency limitations arise; rear contact recombination and optical losses due to incomplete light absorption. The main focus of this thesis is to increase the rear optical reflection of an ultrathin CIGS solar cell. For that, six different metals (Ag, Au, Cu, Ta, Ti and Zn) and two metallic alloys (AlSiCu and TiW) were tested as possible candidates for increasing the rear optical reflection and a nanopattern point structure was employed with Al2O3 as the passivation layer. Optical simulations were conducted to verify which metals gives the highest enhancement at increasing the light absorption in the CIGS layer. The solar cells fabricated were heavily affected by the reaction of the metal layer with the CIGS. As such, an alternative solar cell architecture was developed to prevent such reaction by depositing a Mo layer to cover the point contacts. In the end, the solar cell that incorporate a TiW layer, managed to achieve a 3.69 % (absolute) enhancement in efficiency values over the reference solar cell.
publishDate 2018
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2018-11-29T15:43:55Z
2018-10
2018
2018-10-01T00:00:00Z
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis
format masterThesis
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10362/53147
url http://hdl.handle.net/10362/53147
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
instacron:RCAAP
instname_str Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
instacron_str RCAAP
institution RCAAP
reponame_str Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
collection Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
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