STUDIES ON PHOTOVOLTAICS /SOLAR

CELL
 SOLAR CELL
• Solar cell at present furnishes the most important long duration power supply for satellites and space vehicles . The invention
of the p-n junction formed the basis of the discovery of the crystalline Si solar cell. The solar cells have also been developed
and produced with polysilicon, CdTe , GaAs . Over 95% solar cells in production are silicon based. The energy output from
the sun is primarily electromagnetic radiation , which covers the spectral range of 0.2 to 0.3μm .
• The Photovoltaic cell(PV cell).-A device that converts light energy(Solar energy) directly to electricity. The term solar cell is
designed to capture energy from sunlight which is nothing but a photovoltaic (PV) cell.
• PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECT:. “Photo” comes from ‘light’ and “voltaic” from ‘Volta’. The generation of voltage across the PN
junction in a semiconductor due to the absorption of light radiation is called photovoltaic effect . The device based on this is
called photovoltaic device and the most important photovoltaic device is Solar cell and in most cases is made up of Silicon .

 The sunlight incident on a p-n junction solar cell causes the

absorption of photons. After incidence on surface some are
absorbed and energy is transferred to electron in the
crystal lattice .
 These solar cells are composed of two different types
of semiconductors - a p-type(high concentration of hole or
deficiency of electron) and an n-type(high concentration of
electron) - that are joined together to create a p-n junction.
The schematic diagram is shown in the following diagram.
In p-n diodes, the metallurgical linkage of a region of a p-type and a n-type semiconductor forms a p-n
junction, where the joining of the Fermi levels in equilibrium mostly occurs through a flow of charge between
the n and p regions. In equilibrium we find a region similar to a charged capacitor, where there are, on the n
side, positively ionized donors and, on the p side, negatively ionized acceptors (this zone is known as the space
charge region (SCR). The presence of charged donors and acceptors produces an electric field in that region
which curves the energy bands and, in equilibrium, forms an energy barrier between the two regions: the
bottom of the conduction band and the top of the valence band on the n side are below the corresponding
levels on the p side. An electron-hole pair produced in this SCR (situation 2) is therefore separated by the
effect of the internal electric field of the junction, and so does not recombine. These are the charge carriers
which contribute to the photocurrent.

E
 WORKING PRINCIPLE OF SOLAR CELL
• For any such junction the depletion region consists of uncompensated positively charged donar ions in the p side
and negatively charged acceptor ions in the p side of the SCR. This produces an electric field at the junction
forming the depletion region .

• Now when sunlight falls on solar cell photons with energy greater
than band gap of semiconductor are absorbed by the cell and
generate electron hole pair . These e-h pairs migrate respectively
to n and p side of the p-n junction due to electrostatic force of the
field E across the junction .In this way a potential difference is
established between two sides of the cell.
• Typically a solar cell has negative front contact and positive back
contact. A semiconductor p-n junction is in the middle of these
two contacts behaves like a battery. If these two sides are
connected by an external circuit , the current will start flowing
from positive to negative terminal of the cell .This is the basic
working principle of the cell .For silicon the band gap at room
temperature is 𝐸𝑔 =1.1eV and 𝑈𝐷 = 0.5 𝑡𝑜 0.7 𝑉
 Band diagrams at dark and under illumination

 In a p-n junction in equilibrium under dark condition drift of thermally generated carrier across the junction continues the
reverse saturation current when it is in reverse bias. At zero bias the drift is exactly balanced by a small flow of majority
carriers in the opposite direction resulting in zero net current . Under forward bias the net direction of current is the opposite
i.e., from p side to n-side.
 Diode is operated open circuit When illuminated the equilibrium is upset EHPs are generated in depletion
region E across junction pulls electrons to the n-side and the holes to the p-side holes in p-type are increased
as are electrons in n-type. A photon induced current, Iph, flows through the diode from the n side to the p side
Such that The energy barrier is reduced. More holes can cross from the p to n side and more electrons cross
from n to p creating a forward current through the diode. The drop in energy barrier is seen as a forward
voltage across the ends of the diode The photon induced voltage is measured  photovoltaic
 If the junction is illuminated then additional electron hole pairs is created with a generation rate GL. So the number of
minority holes created per second within diffusion length Lh on the n side is , A𝐿ℎ GL, A is area of the diode and the number
of electrons created on the p side A𝐿𝑒 GL.
 After solving the steady state continuity equation for holes and electrons in n side and p side, the total current
𝑞𝑣 𝑞𝑉
𝐿
I= qA (τℎ 𝑝𝑁𝑂 𝐿𝑒
+ 𝑛𝑃𝑂 )(𝑒
τ𝑒
𝑘𝐵 𝑇
− 1) − qAG(𝐿ℎ +𝐿𝑒 ) = Is (𝑒 𝑘𝐵 𝑇 − 1) – I L (1)
ℎ
where I L is the photo generated part of current by which total current is lowered by an amount proportional to
generation rate.

The solar cell is assumed to have ideal diode I-V characteristics. The equivalent circuit is shown where a constant-current
source of photocurrent is shown in parallel with the junction. The source IL, results from the excitation of excess carriers by
solar radiation; Is is the diode saturation current, and RL, is the load resistance.
In the eqn (1 ) we put I =0 and obtain the open circuit voltage
𝑲𝑩 𝑻 𝑳𝒉 +𝑳𝒆 𝑲𝑩 𝑻 𝑰𝑳
V= 𝑽𝒐𝒄 = ln[𝑳𝒉 𝐆 + 𝟏] = ln (2)
𝒒 𝒑
𝝉𝒉 𝑵𝑶
+ 𝑳𝝉𝒆𝒆𝒏𝑷𝑶 𝒒 𝑰𝒔

Hence for a given I L , the open-circuit voltage increases logarithmically with decreasing saturation
current Is,. For a regular p-n junction, the ideal saturation current is given by

(3)

As seen, Is, decreases exponentially with Eg. So to obtain a large Voc, a large Eg is required. Qualitatively, we know the
maximum Voc is the built-in potential of the junction, and the maximum built-in potential is close to the potential
corresponding to the energy gap.
• Again when V=0, we obtain short circuit current
• 𝐼𝑠𝑐 = 𝐼𝐿 =−qAG(𝐿ℎ +𝐿𝑒 ) (4)

Current Voltage Characteristics:

The IV curve passes through the fourth quadrant and, therefore, power
can be extracted from the device to a load. By properly choosing a load,
close to 80% of the product IscVoc can be extracted. The shaded area is
the maximum power output. We also define the quantities Im, and Vm,
that correspond to the current and voltage, for the maximum power
output Pm (= ImVm).
  𝑉𝑜𝑐 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑏𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼𝑠𝑐 𝑖s the current through the load in short circuit
condition.

To derive the maximum-power operating point, the output power is given by

𝑞𝑉
• Output power P = IV = 𝐼𝑠 V(𝑒 𝑘𝐵 𝑇 − 1) − 𝐼𝐿 V
𝑑𝑃
• The condition for maximum power = 0 gives
𝑑𝑉

Vm Im
Fill Factor (FF) =
𝐼𝑠𝑐 𝑉𝑜𝑐
Theoretically, the ideal efficiency can be calculated. We have shown that the photocurrent increases with smaller Eg. On
the other hand, the voltage increases with Eg by having a small saturation current. So to maximize the power, there exists
an optimum value for the bandgap Eg. Furthermore, by using the ideal saturation current of Eq. (3) in relation to Eg, the
theoretical maximum conversion efficiency can be calculated. Note that the efficiency has a broad maximum in the Eg
range of 0.8 - 1.4 eV. Many factors degrade the ideal efficiency, so that efficiencies actually achieved are lower.

Ideal solar cell efficiency as a

function of band gap
For a practical solar cell, the ideal equivalent circuit will be modified to include the series resistance Rs from ohmic
loss in the front surface and from resistances of neutral n and p regions and the shunt resistance Rsh resulting
from surface leakage currents/ due to defects along the junction depletion region, such that the equivalent
circuit should include Rs, added in series with the load RL,, and Rsh,, added in parallel with the diode.

Variation of short circuit current and open circuit voltage

𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒.
To maximize the output power 𝐼𝑠𝑐 , 𝑉𝑜𝑐 both must be made
small . In other words the p-side and n-side of the junction
must be doped heavily.

Variation of Open circuit voltage and short circuit current for

different intensities
STUDY OF I-V CHARACTERISTICS, AND VARIATION OF FILL
FACTOR FOR DIFFERENT INTENSITIES
EFFICIENCY AND FILL FACTOR CALCULATION
 EXPERIMENTAL OBJECTIVES
 To study the I-V characteristics for different intensities
To study the variation of short circuit current with intensity.

 To study the variation of open circuit voltage with intensity.

 To find the fill factor and conservation efficiency for different intensities.
When experiment is performed with 100 Watt lamp:
1. First keep the lux meter at different position of the bench, switch on the light and by using inverse square law
determine the intensity corresponding to each position.
2. Place the solar cell and the light source (100 watt lamp) opposite to each other at the typical distance from each
other corresponding to the intensity points. Connect the circuit through patch chords.
3. Select the voltmeter range to 2V, current meter range to 250μA and load resistance (RL) ~ 50Ω. Switch ON the
lamp to expose the light on Solar Cell.
4. Note the voltmeter reading for open circuit, VOC and milliammeter reading with zero resistance ISC.
5. Note down the observation of voltage and current. Vary the load resistance and note down the current and
voltage readings
6. Plot a graph between output voltage vs. output current by taking voltage along X-axis and current along Y axis.
7. Draw a rectangle having maximum area under the V-I curve and note the values of Vm and Im. Using these
values, calculate the fill factor for the cell and also the conversion efficiency for each intensity.