Numerical simulation of a new

heterostructure CIGS/GaSe solar cell system

using SCAPS-1D software

Abstract
The aim of this work is to study the photovoltaic performance of a solar cell
based on GaSe materials using SCAPS-1D simulator. The novelty of this work
consists in the use of GaSe lamellar as a buffer layer, this material has not
been used at this part of solar cells before, which makes this new study
interesting; we had also used a thin film (CIGS-P+), strongly doped type p as
back surface field in order to obtain high performance. The solar cell is made
up of two CIGS layers with different acceptors densities, one layer of Gallium
selenide GaSe, and ITO anti-reflective layer. The role and impact of the CIGS-
P+ layer as a back surface field on the performance of solar cells were
investigated. To improve cell performance, the effects of thickness, carrier
concentration, operating temperature, and resistors Rs and Rsh are explored.
The carrier concentration as well as the thickness of the GaSe, CIGS
absorber layer, and CIGS-P+ were shown to affect the cell's performance.

The open circuit voltage of the simulated cell was increased to 309 mV
after using CIGS-P+, the current density Jsc up to 32.61 mA/cm2, the Fill Factor
FF up to 89.39%. After employing CIGS-P+ in a GaSe-based solar cell, an
efficiency gains of roughly 10.06 % was recorded.

Introduction
For decades, scientists have been working on renewable energies, because
fossil fuels, in addition to being polluting, are exhaustible. The search for an
alternative energy source is inevitable. The sources of fossil fuels are
becoming increasingly rare. Therefore, scientific research has turned to
sustainable energy, and the most important source of these energies remains
the sun. The photovoltaic effect converts solar radiation directly into electricity,
which is how solar energy is harnessed (Kabir et al., 2018, Laser et al., 2017,
Şen, 2004). As a result, renewable energy is the subject of multiple
researches to find materials that, on one hand, will give the best energy
conversion efficiency and on the other hand, respect the environment. Among
the types of cells that are still subjects of research and development, we find
those made from III to VI materials such as; InSe, GaSe, GaS (Al Garni and
Darwish, 2017, Bassou et al., 2020). The efficiency/cost ratio is the most
essential factor in most research, and thin film solar cell materials are now
being developed to obtain a high value of this ratio. Solar cells composed of
chalcopyrite materials have a thick absorbent layer (⩽ 2 µm) that absorbs the
useful portion of the solar spectrum (Heriche et al., 2017). Chalcogenide
photovoltaic technologies offer a new technological choice compared to
conventional silicon technologies (Heinrich et al., 2020).

CIGS has many advantages, such as an adjustable band gap according to the
ratio (Ga/Ga + In) (Asaduzzaman et al., 2016, Bär et al., 2004, Peace et al.,
2016), high absorption coefficient of order 3–6×105 cm-1 (Li et al., 2019) and
high exterior stability. Jackson et al. (2011) found that CIGS solar cells have a
conversion efficiency of over 20%, while Amin et al. (2012) found a conversion
efficiency of 17.26%, using an absorbent layer thickness of 1 µm CIGS. In the
lab, a variety of techniques have been utilized to create ultra-thin CIGS solar
cells with efficiencies of 12 to –13%. (Naghavi et al., 2017, Van Lare et al.,
2015). Vermang et al. (2014) used an ultra-thin Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorbent layer
thickness of 0.385 µm to increase the efficiency of solar cells by 13.5%. This
efficiency is lower than that of conventional CIGS solar cells with absorbent
layers ranging in thickness from 2.5 µm to 4 µm. A downside of cells made
from CIGS materials is the expensive cost of the indium and gallium
components. As a result, the use of CIGS thin film solar cells has been
limited. In order to make up for the loss, it was thought to reduce the use of
indium and gallium by reducing the thickness of the CIGS absorbent layer, in
this work very small thicknesses had been used and leaded to efficiencies up
to 33%.
Gallium Selenide is a III-VI semiconductor, has a lamellar structure of which
the basic element is a sheet. The latter consists of two Gallium planes
interspersed between two Selenium planes with a Se–Ga–Ga–Se sequence
(Seyhan et al., 2005). It should be noted that inside the same sheets, there
are strong bonds between atoms (iono covalent bonds); on the other hand, all
of the sheets constituting the 2D lamellar crystal are linked by weak Van der
Walls type bonds (Abdullah et al., 2010, Ashkhasi et al., 2017, Bourdon,
1974). It is worth remembering that the lamellar crystalline binary compound
(III-VI) GaSe, come in different polytypes, namely ε, β, δ, γ (Allakhverdiev et
al., 2009, Capozzi, 1983, Seyhan et al., 2005). All these polytypes are
broadband semiconductors with 2.004 eV (Le Toullec et al., 1975), 2.16 eV
(Fan et al., 2002) value. The use of gallium selenide (GaSe) as a buffer layer,
such as two-dimensional layered materials, has attracted attention. This
chalcogenide (III-VI) semiconductor is widely used in radiation detection
(Castellano, 1986). Non-linear optics and optoelectronics (Al-Hattab et al.,
2020, Liao et al., 2019). GaSe layers are very well photoreactive, this
characteristic allows them to be used as photodetectors (Lu et al., 2013).

In this paper, a new CIGS-based solar cell structure comprising a GaSe buffer
layer and an ITO anti-reflective film is proposed. Second, a CIGS-P+ is added
to reduce charge carrier losses on the back face, hence boosting the
efficiency of the solar cell under investigation. We also examine the effect of
concentration, thickness, resistances and working temperature on structural
GaSe-based solar cells. The following is a summary of our paper: The
Computational Methods are presented in section 2. Section 3 is devoted to
discussing the numerical data and providing our interpretations, while Section
4 is devoted to our study's conclusions.
Section snippets
Device structure and numerical simulation
The importance of numerical modeling in understanding the physical
properties and design of solar cells based on crystalline, polycrystalline, and
amorphous materials is currently very high. Numerical modeling is currently
very important in understanding the physical properties and design of solar
cells (Arbouz et al., 2016, Morales-Acevedo et al., 2012, Wang et al., 2015).
Advanced measurements on complex structures, as well as the design and
optimization of advanced cellular systems,

Influence of carrier concentration and CIGS absorber layer thickness

The challenge in solar energy is to produce environmentally friendly solar
cells, inexpensive in terms of price and offer high ɳ(%) using ultra-thin
absorbent layers (Rahman, 2021). Carriers concentration of the absorbent
layer and thickness are significant parameters impacting the structural design
of solar cells; consequently, optimizing these two factors aids in obtaining
optimal cell performance. Fig. 2 depicts the influence of concentration and
thickness on the suggested solar cell's

Conclusion
In the present work, the solar cell structure used for this simulation study is
ITO/GaSe/CIGS and ITO/GaSe/CIGS/CIGS-P+, it was simulated by the
SCAPS-1D simulation software where CIGS is used as the absorbent layer,
GaSe is like a buffer layer and ITO like an OTC layer. This work aims to study
the characteristics of a solar cell proposed, as well as to optimize the
parameters (thickness, doping, temperature …) of the studied structure in
order to improve its photovoltaic conversion efficiency. 
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or
personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work
reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements
Prof. Marc Burgelman, University of Ghent, Belgium, is heartily acknowledged
by the authors, for providing the SCAPS 1-D simulation software.