Model for increased efficiency of CIGS solar cells by a stepped distribution of carrier density and Ga in the absorber layer

In this paper, several structures for multilayer Cu(In1-xGax) Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells are proposed to achieve high conversion efficiency. All of the modeling and simulations were based on the actual data of experimentally produced CIGS cells reported in the literature. In standard CIGS cells with a single absorber layer, the effects of acceptor density and Ga content on device performance were studied, and then optimized for maximum conversion efficiency. The same procedure was performed for cells with two and three sectioned CIGS absorber layers in which Cu and/or Ga contents were varied within each consecutive section. This produces an internal additional electric field within the absorber layer, which resulted in an increase in carrier collection for longer wavelength photons, and hence, improvement in the conversion efficiency of the cell. An increase of approximately 3% in efficiency is predicted for cells with two layer absorbers. For multilayer cells in which Cu and Ga distribution were stepped simultaneously, the improvement could be approximately 3.5%. This improvement is due to; enhanced carrier collection for longer-wavelength photons, and reduced recombination at the heterojunction and back regions of the cell. These results are confirmed by the physics of the cells.