Document Type

Dissertation - University Access Only

Award Date

2012

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department / School

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

First Advisor

Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi

Abstract

Reducing the cost of raw materials ( c-Si wafers) in solar panels is an effective iv way to reduce the cost of PV panels since materials account for about 60 % of the cost of a solar panel. The goal of this dissertation was to explore the possibility of combining amorphous Si and crystalline Si into a tandem solar cell with an efficiency over 20 % using low quality Si substrates. The tandem solar cell structure consists of a top p-i-n amorphous Si solar cell, a bottom p-n crystalline Si solar cell, and a tunnel junction between the top and bottom solar cell. A model was developed for this cell that accounted for reflection losses at the surface of the cell, drift-diffusion and dispersive transport in aSi top cell, drift-diffusion limited transport in the bottom Si cell, recombination velocities in the back and front (tunnel junction) contacts, and resistive losses in the tunnel junction. A-Si:H/c-Si tandem solar cells were fabricated without optimization. A rigorous metaloxide- semiconductor model was developed to extract density of fixed charges and trap states at the Hf02/Si and Ah03/Si interfaces from the high frequency C-V characteristics of the devices. Microwave photo-conductance decay was used to characterize the interface recombination velocities at Si/ Ah03 and Si/Hf02 interfaces and study the electronic qualities of these interfaces. Simulation results showed that the highest.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Silicon solar cells
Photovoltaic power generation -- Economic aspects

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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Rights Statement

In Copyright