Numerical Modeling to Optimize the Parameters for Ga2CeCl6 based Solar Cell

Abstract

Solar cells are considered a potential sustainable device for generating electricity from sunlight. However, the cost of commercial silicon based solar cells is high due to a complex manufacturing process. The halide double perovskite (HDP) solar cell provides high power conversion efficiency (PCE) at a lower fabrication cost due to their tunable optoelectronic properties and the inexpensive materials involved in the fabrication of the device. The basic structure of the solar cell contains the window layer, the electron transport layer (ETL), the absorber layer, and the hole transport layer (HTL). We have investigated the performance of Ga₂CeCl₆ based thin film solar cell (TFSC) numerically using SCAPS-1D (Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator). The structure of the device is ITO/C60/Ga₂CeCl₆/CZTS where ITO (indium tin oxide), C60, Ga₂CeCl₆ and CZTS (copper zinc tin sulfide) are the window layer, ETL, absorber layer, and HTL respectively. Various factors affect the performance of the TFSC, such as the thickness of different layers, the concentration of dopants, defects, operating temperature, series resistance, shunt resistance, and so on. These quantities are varied in a certain range, and their effects on the solar cell parameters such as open-circuit voltage (V_OC), short-circuit current density (J_SC), fill factor (FF), and PCE are obtained from simulation. The optimum values for those quantities are implemented to design a cost effective and high performing TFSC device. For the optimized Ga₂CeCl₆ based TFSC, the values of V_OC, J_SC, FF, and PCE are 1.2 V, 31 mAcm^-2, 89%, and 33.34%, respectively.