%0 Conference Paper
%A Bittkau, Karsten
%A Gebrewold, Habtamu Tsegaye
%A Qiu, Kaifu
%A Rau, Uwe
%A Ding, Kaining
%T Numerical Optimization of nc-SiC/SiO2 Based Transparent Passivating Contacts in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells
%M FZJ-2024-02642
%D 2023
%X Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells that incorporate transparent passivating contact (TPC), based on nc-SiC:H/SiO2 layer stack, at the front side are currently under investigation due to their combination of transparency, passivation quality, and conductivity. In this work, the potential performance of those TPC solar cells is modeled and investigated. We coupled the finite-element method-based electro-optical device simulator Sentaurus TCAD to a genetic algorithm approach implemented in Python to optimize the thicknesses of the front layer stack. Starting with a configuration that previously showed in experiment an efficiency of 23.8% and short-circuit current density of 40.9 mA/cm², the optimization of front layer thickness results in 24.1% efficiency.Moreover, we used the Sentaurus TCAD simulations to further improve the device performance by varying the dopant concentration at the rear-side a-Si:H(p) layer and the rear ITO layer. There, an improved carrier extraction could be shown with an efficiency potential beyond 25%.A detailed analysis will be shown, highlighting the importance of band alignment and the role of defect and band tail states on charge carrier extraction and passivation quality in the TPC-based SHJ solar cells.
%B EU PVSEC
%C 18 Sep 2023 - 22 Sep 2023, Lisbon (Portugal)
Y2 18 Sep 2023 - 22 Sep 2023
M2 Lisbon, Portugal
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)6
%9 Conference Presentation
%R 10.34734/FZJ-2024-02642
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1025054