Design and Numerical Analysis of Highly

Efficient AlSb Compound Solar Cells

PRESENTED BY

Umme Aimon Rishita Chakma

ID no. 1202071 ID no. 1202132

SUPERVISED BY
Mrinmoy Dey
Assistant Professor,
Department of EEE,
CUET.

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 Objectives
• To design a highly efficient AlSb solar cells.

• To model the designed of the AlSb solar cells.

• To simulate the modelled structures of the AlSb solar cell with

BSF.

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 Literature Review

Fig. 1 : Increasing trend in Renewable Energy Sources [1].

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Literature Review

Fig. 2Total share of energy consumption [2].

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 Literature Review

Fig. 3 Declining trend of major energy reserves [3].

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Literature Review

Fig. 4 Global energy potential [4].

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 Literature Review
Parameter Value Status

PV Market 77.3 GW 2016

Cumulative installation 320 GW End of 2016

PV Power consumption 333 TWh 2016

PV electricity share 1.3% 2016

c-Si share of 93% 2016

production

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 Literature Review
Structure Efficiency References

ITO/ TiO2/AlSb/CuSCN/Au 14.41% 1

ITO/ TiO2/AlSb/Au 19% 2,3

ITO/ ZnO/AlSb/CuSCN/Mo 14% 3

[1] Rabin Dhakal, Kafford, J., Logue, B., Roop, M., Galipeau, D., & Yan, X., “Electrodeposited AlSb compound
semiconductor for thin film solar cells”, in Proc of 2009 34th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), June 07-
12,Philadelphia,PA,USA, 2009.
[2] Rabin Dhakal, Yong Li, TingTing Xu, Yung Huh, Sandeep Patel, David Galipeau, Xingzhong Yan, “AlSb intrinsic
absorber layer in p-i-n junction solar cells”, in Proc of 2010 35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC),
June 20-25, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2010.
[3] Rabin Dhakal, Yung Huh, David Galipeau and Xingzhong Yan (2011). “AlSb Compound Semiconductor as Absorber
Layer in Thin Film Solar Cells”, in book of “Solar Cells - New Aspects and Solutions”, Prof. Leonid A.
Kosyachenko(Ed.),ISBN:978-953-307-761-1.
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 Methodology

• Cell optimization by AMPS 1D simulator

• BSF layer selection

• BSF layer insertion

• High efficiency and Stability

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Methodology (cont.)

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Base Cell Structure

Fig. 5 Structure for AlSb solar cell

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 Different Layers in Structure

• A heavily doped and high transmittance TCO layer is

employed as the front contact.
• ITO is selected as TCO layer with 85% transmittance in
visible range.
• The optical transparency, the electrical property along with
improved stability and adhesion prefer ITO as suitable TCO
layer.
• A non-toxic, transparent, environmental friendly material ZnS
of high band gap (Eg= 3.72 eV) is used as the buffer layer in
this work.

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 Different Layers in Structure
• An abundant, non-toxic and inexpensive material AlSb is
chosen as absorber layer.
• AlSb is a binary compound semiconductor of group III-V
having suitable optical and electrical properties for suitable
thin film solar cells.
• To reduce the recombination loss at the back surface of the
solar cell, some BSF layers are employed in this work for
analysis.

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 Proposed Structure

BSF Layers:
1.PbTe
2.Cu2Te
3.SnTe
4.GeTe
5.CdZnTe
6.In2Te3
7.ZnTe
8.As2Te3

Fig. 6 Proposed structure of the cell with different BSF layers

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Absorber Layer Optimization

Fig. 7 Cell Performance with Absorber layer thickness variation

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Effect of Doping Concentration on Cell
Optimization

Fig. 8 Effect of Doping Concentration on Cell performance

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 Cell Optimization

Fig. 9 J-V characteristics curve for Fig. 10 Normalized efficiency with temperature
optimized cell changes in optimized cell

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 Proposed Structure

• BSF Layers:
1. PbTe
2. Cu2Te
3. SnTe
4. GeTe
5. CdZnTe
6. In2Te3
7. ZnTe
8. As2Te3

Fig. 6 Proposed structure of the cell with different BSF layers

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Effect on Cell Performance with PbTe BSF

Fig. 11 Effect of Absorber layer in AlSb Solar cell with PbTe BSF
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Effect on Cell Performance with PbTe BSF
(cont.)

Fig. 12 J-V characteristics curve with Fig. 13 Thermal Stability with and without
and without PbTe BSF PbTe BSF

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Effect on Cell Performance with Cu2Te BSF

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

Fig. 14 Effect of Absorber layer in AlSb Solar

cell with Cu2Te BSF
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 Effect on Cell Performance with Cu2Te BSF
(cont.)

Fig. 1 J-V characteristics curve with and Fig. 15 Thermal stability with and without
without Cu2Te BSF Cu2Te BSF

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Effect on Cell Performance with GeTe BSF

Fig. 16 Cell performance with and without GeTe BSF

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 Effect on Cell Performance with GeTe BSF
(cont.)

Fig. 17 J-V characteristics curve with and Fig. 18 Thermal stability with and without
without GeTe BSF GeTe BSF

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Effect on Cell Performance with SnTe BSF

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

Fig. 19 Cell performance with and without SnTe BSF

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 Effect on Cell Performance with SnTe BSF
(cont.)

Fig. 20 J-V characteristics curve with and Fig. 21 Thermal stability with and without
without SnTe BSF SnTe BSF

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Effect on Cell Performance with CdZnTe BSF

AlSb layer Thickness (µm) AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

Fig. 22 Cell performance with and without CdZnTe BSF

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Effect on Cell Performance with CdZnTe BSF
(cont.)

Fig. 23 J-V characteristics curve with and Fig. 24 Thermal stability with and without
without CdZnTe BSF CdZnTe BSF

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Effect on Cell Performance with In2Te3 BSF

AlSb layer Thickness (µm) AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

Fig. 25 Cell performance with and without In2Te3 BSF

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 Effect on Cell Performance with In2Te3 BSF
(cont.)

Fig. 26 J-V characteristics curve with and Fig. 27 Thermal stability with and without
without In2Te3 BSF In2Te3 BSF

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Effect on Cell Performance with ZnTe BSF

AlSb layer Thickness (µm) AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

Fig. 28 Cell performance with and without ZnTe BSF

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 Effect on Cell Performance with ZnTe BSF
(cont.)

Fig. 29 J-V characteristics curve with and Fig. 30 Thermal stability with and without
without ZnTe BSF ZnTe BSF

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Effect on Cell Performance with As2Te3 BSF

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

AlSb layer Thickness (µm)

Fig. 31 Cell performance with and without As2Te3 BSF

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 Effect on Cell Performance with As2Te3 BSF
(cont.)

Fig. 32 J-V characteristics curve with and Fig. 33 Thermal stability with and without
without As2Te3 BSF As2Te3 BSF

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Results From Numerical Analysis
Structure/ parameters Voc Jsc (mA/cm2) FF Eff. Ref.
(V) (%)

ITO/ZnS/AlSb 1.20 21.342 0.703 18.071 [5]

ITO/ZnS/AlSb/PbTe 1.25 21.490 0.817 21.96

ITO/ZnS/AlSb/Cu2Te 1.25 21.592 0.821 22.19 [6]

ITO/ZnS/AlSb/GeTe 1.25 21.283 0.821 22.316

ITO/ZnS/AlSb/SnTe 1.25 21.490 0.821 22.401

ITO/ZnS/AlSb/ 1.26 21.263 0.840 22.578

CdZnTe
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/In2Te3 1.26 21.437 0.840 22.764
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/ZnTe 1.26 21.453 0.840 22.782

ITO/ZnS/AlSb/As2Te3 1.26 21.759 0.838 23.062

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Results From Numerical Analysis (cont.)
Structure/ parameters Temperature Co-efficient

ITO/ZnS/AlSb -0.061 %/°C

ITO/ZnS/AlSb/PbTe -0.023 %/°C

ITO/ZnS/AlSb/Cu2Te -0.004 %/°C
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/GeTe -0.046 %/°C
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/SnTe -0.057 %/°C
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/CdZnTe -0.053 %/°C
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/In2Te3 -0.052 %/°C
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/ZnTe -0.051 %/°C
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/As2Te3 -0.049 %/°C

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 Final Outcome of Numerical Analysis
• Analysis of the simulated results show that the structure
ITO/ZnS/AlSb/As2Te3 is the best one among the proposed
structure with an efficiency of 23.062 % where the Voc= 1.26
V, Jsc=21.759 mA/cm2 , FF= 0.838.

• It shows the temperature co-efficient (TC) -0.049 %/°C

ensuring the thermal stability.

• Considering thermal stability, the structure with Cu2Te BSF

shows lowest temperature co-efficient.

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 Future Work
• Fabrication of the AlSb Compound Solar Cell.

• Improvement in the Cell modelling in the Front and Back

Contact.

• Use of Different Buffer Layers to reduce Photo-current losses.

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 Conclusion
• The conversion efficiency of 23.06 % is achieved
with As2Te3 BSF with only 0.5 μm of absorber layer
thickness.

• High efficiency with better performance parameters.

• Better thermal stability.

• Low cost.

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 References
[1] BP Energy Outlook 2017,
https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/...outlook-2017/bp-energy-outlook 2017.pdf (Accessed October,
2017).
[2] https://fafricanergy.com/2017/02/17/world-energy-consumption/ (Accessed June, 2017).
[3] https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-energy/energy-independence/the-end-of-fossil-fuels ( Accessed
June,2017).
[4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Global_energy_potential_and_consumption.svg (Accessed
June, 2017).
[5] Mrinmoy Dey, Rishita Chakma, U. Aimon and M. A. Matin, “Optimization of Efficient and Stable
Aluminium Antimonide Compound Solar Cells,” in Proceedings of the 2nd ICPSDT, Chittagong,
Bangladesh, December 2017.
[6] Mrinmoy Dey, Rishita Chakma, U. Aimon and M. A. Matin, “Study of Ultra-thin and Stable
AlSb Solar Cell with Potential Copper Telluride BSF,” in Proceedings of the 5thIEEE HTC R10, Dhaka,
Bangladesh, December 21-23, 2017.

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Thank You

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Questions
& Answers

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