Photovoltaic performance enhancement of Al/ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/CdS /CIGS/Pt solar cell using SCAPS-1D software

The high-performance Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layer is simulated by the SCAPS-1D software. A CIGS absorber layer, a cadmium sulfide (CdS) buffer layer, intrinsic zinc oxide (i:ZnO), and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (Al:ZnO), also known as transparent conductive oxide (TCO), are all included in the cell structure. These layers are connected to upper/top and back contacts made of aluminum (Al) and platinum (Pt). All optimizations employed in cell structure have a thin layer of Al/ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/CdS/CIGS/Pt. The open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current (Jsc), fill factor (FF), and efficiency (η) were all investigated in this study, along with the effects of back contact, absorber and buffer layer thickness, the absorber layer's acceptor density, the buffer layer's donor density, the absorber and buffer layer's defect densities, performance of interface defect density, series and shunt resistance, and temperature. To achieve optimal performance, it is recommended to set the acceptor and donor densities for the absorber and buffer layers at 1018 cm−3, while maintaining defect densities at 1014 cm−3. These desired densities can be attained by using a window layer thickness of 200 nm, a buffer layer thickness of 40 nm, and an absorber layer thickness of 2500 nm. The optimized model demonstrates photovoltaic (PV) performance characteristics of 0.8975 V for VOC, 34.245732 mA/cm2 for JSC, 86.81% for FF, and 26.68% for power conversion efficiency (PCE) under the AM 1.5 G spectrum. Furthermore, it exhibits a quantum efficiency of 98.86% at visible wavelengths.