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Solar Cell 8

Chapter 8 discusses various solar cell structures including homojunctions, semiconductor heterojunctions, metal-semiconductor heterojunctions, MIS solar cells, and photoelectrochemical cells. Each section details the characteristics and design principles of these devices, supported by energy-band diagrams and schematic illustrations. The chapter emphasizes the importance of parameters such as work function, electron affinity, and semiconductor band gap in the performance of these solar cells.

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Syafiq Khanafi Arifin
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8 views17 pages

Solar Cell 8

Chapter 8 discusses various solar cell structures including homojunctions, semiconductor heterojunctions, metal-semiconductor heterojunctions, MIS solar cells, and photoelectrochemical cells. Each section details the characteristics and design principles of these devices, supported by energy-band diagrams and schematic illustrations. The chapter emphasizes the importance of parameters such as work function, electron affinity, and semiconductor band gap in the performance of these solar cells.

Uploaded by

Syafiq Khanafi Arifin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Solar Cell

Chapter 8: Other Device Structures

Nji Raden Poespawati


Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University of Indonesia
Contents
8.1. Homojunctions
8.2. Semiconductor Heterojunctions
8.3. Metal-Semiconductor Heterojunctions
8.4. MIS Solar Cells
8.5. Photoelectrochemical Cells
Homojunctions
 Conventional silicon solar cell
 The semiconductor on either side of the
junction is the same, differing only in
dopant type
 To illustrate several different homojunction
concepts three specific devices will be
described in the following section, namely:
1. The high-low emitter (HLE) structure (see
Figure 1a)
2. The front-surface-field cell (see Figure 2a)
3. The vertical junction cell (see Figure 2b)
Semiconductor Heterojunctions
 the materials on either side of the
junction are semiconductors but different
semiconductors

 The band diagrams of heterojunction is


illustrated in Figure 3

 Three parameters are important, such as


1. the work function
2. the electron affinity
3. the semiconductor band gap

 Figure 4 shows defects due to


heterojunction cell
Metal-Semiconductor Heterojunctions
 Figure 5 illustrates energy-band
diagram at a metal-semiconductor
heterojunction.

 Metal-semiconductor contacts with


such depletion regions are known
as Schottky diodes

 curve I-V of schottky diode is


depicted in Figure 6
MIS Solar Cells

 Figure 7 indicates schematic of the


metal-insulator-semiconductor
structure and its energy-band
diagram
 Two approaches to the design of
the top contact of MIS solar cells
are shown in Figure 8
Photoelectrochemical Cells
 Figure 9 shows energy-band diagram of an
electromechanical photovoltaic and
photoelectrolysis cell under illumination
Thank You
Figure 1. (a) Schematic diagram of the high-low emitter solar cell
structure. (b) Corresponding collection probability as a function
of distance from the surface of the cell
Figure 2. Other homojunction approaches to solar cell design:
(a) Front surface field cell.
(b) Vertical multijunction cell
Figure 3. (a) Energy-band diagrams of isolated pieces of different
semiconductors, one doped p-type, the other n-type. (b) Band
diagram of the heterojunction formed by conceptually joining these
pieces.
Figure 4. (a) Defects due to the mismatch at the interface
between two lattices of different lattice constant. (b)
Corresponding defect states in the forbidden gap caused by
this mismatch.
Figure 5. Energy-band diagram at a metal-semiconductor heterojunction:
(a) Zero bias.
(b) Forward bias.
(c) Reverse bias.
Figure 6. (a) Current components in a Schottky diode in the
dark. (b) Comparison of the illuminated characteristics of
Schottky and p-n junction devices.
Figure 7. (a) Schematic of the metal-insulator-
semiconductor structure. (b) Corresponding energy-
band diagram.
Figure 8. Two approaches to the design of the top contact of MIS
solar cells:
(a) Transparent metal approach.
(b) Grating device.
Figure 9. (a) Energy-band diagram of an electrochemical
photovoltaic cell under illumination. The redox-couple level in
the electrolyte allows charge transfer between the metal and
the valence band in the semiconductor. (b) Energy-band
diagram of a photoelectrolysis cell under illumination. Ideally,
the device operates with the metal externally shorted to the
rear of the semiconductor layer.

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