• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.13 no.spc2
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• pp.336-340
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• 2012

Wide band gap p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (a-SiO:H) buffer layer has been used at the interface of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) p-type layer of a p-i-n type a-Si:H solar cell. Introduction of 5 nm thick buffer layer improves in blue response of the cell along with 0.5% enhancement of photovoltaic conversion efficiency (η). The cells with buffer layer show higher open circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (FF), short circuit current density (Jsc) and improved blue response with respect to the cell without buffer layer.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.730-733
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• 2013

In this work, buffer layers with various conditions are inserted at an n/i interface in hydrogenated amorphous silicon semitransparent solar cells. It is observed that the performance of a solar cell strongly depends on the arrangement and thickness of the buffer layer. When arranging buffer layers with various bandgaps in ascending order from the intrinsic layer to the n layer, a relatively high open circuit voltage and short circuit current are observed. In addition, the fill factors are improved, owing to an enhanced shunt resistance under every instance of the introduced n/i buffer layers. Among the various conditions during the arrangement of the buffer layers, a reverse V shape of the energy bandgap is found to be the most effective for high efficiency, which also exhibits intermediate transmittance among all samples. This is an inspiring result, enabling an independent control of the conversion efficiency and transmittance.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.10
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• pp.1702-1705
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• 2016

We propose a novel hydrogen-reduced p-type amorphous silicon oxide buffer layer between $TiO_2$ antireflection layer and p-type silicon window layer of silicon thin film solar cells. This new buffer layer can protect underlying the $TiO_2$ by suppressing hydrogen plasma, which could be made by excluding $H_2$ gas introduction during plasma deposition. Amorphous silicon oxide thin film solar cells with employing the new buffer layer exhibited better conversion efficiency (8.10 %) compared with the standard cell (7.88 %) without the buffer layer. This new buffer layer can be processed in the same p-chamber with in-situ mode before depositing main p-type amorphous silicon oxide window layer. Comparing with state-of-the-art buffer layer of AZO/p-nc-SiOx:H, our new buffer layer can be processed with cost-effective, much simple process based on similar device performances.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.138-138
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• 2009

Recently, thin-film solar cells of Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$(CIGS) have reached a high level of performance, which has resulted in a 19.9%-efficient device. These conventional devices were typically fabricated using chemical bath deposited CdS buffer layer between the CIGS absorber layer and ZnO window layer. However, the short wavelength response of CIGS solar cell is limited by narrow CdS band gap of about 2.42 eV. Taking into consideration the environmental aspect, the toxic Cd element should be replaced by a different material. It is why during last decades many efforts have been provided to achieve high efficiency Cd-free CIGS solar cells. In order to alternate CdS buffer layer, ZnS buffer layer is grown by using chemical bath deposition(CBD) technique. The thickness and chemical composition of ZnS buffer layer can be conveniently by varying the CBD processing parameters. The processing parameters were optimized to match band gap of ZnS films to the solar spectrum and exclude the creation of morphology defects. Optimized ZnS buffer layer showed higher optical transmittance than conventional thick-CdS buffer layer at the short wavelength below ~520 nm. Then, chemically deposited ZnS buffer layer was applied to CIGS solar cell as a alternative for the standard CdS/CIGS device configuration. This CIGS solar cells were characterized by current-voltage and quantum efficiency measurement.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2020

The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a two-terminal tandem solar cell depends upon the tunnel-recombination junction (TRJ) between the top and bottom sub-cells. An optimized TRJ in a tandem cell helps improve its open-circuit voltage (V_oc), short-circuit current density (J_sc), fill factor (FF), and efficiency (PCE). One of the parameters that affect the TRJ is the buffer layer thickness. Therefore, we investigated various TRJs by varying the thickness of the buffer or intermediate layer (TRJ-buffer) in between the highly doped p-type and n-type layers of the TRJ. The TRJ-buffer layer was p-type nc-Si:H, with a doping of 0.06%, an activation energy (E_a) of 43 meV, an optical gap (E_g) of 2.04 eV, and its thickness was varied from 0 nm to 125 nm. The tandem solar cells we investigated were a combination of a heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) bottom sub-cell and an a-Si:H (amorphous silicon) top sub-cell. The initial cell efficiency without the TRJ buffer was 7.65% while with an optimized buffer layer, its efficiency improved to 11.74%, i.e., an improvement in efficiency by a factor of 1.53.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.432-438
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• 2011

In this study, chemical bath deposited (CBD) indium sulfide buffer layers were investigated as a possible substitution for the cadmium sulfide buffer layer in CIGS thin film solar cells. The performance of the $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cell dramatically improved when the films were annealed at $300^{\circ}C$ in inert gas after the buffer layer was grown on the CIGS film. The thickness of the indium sulfide buffer layer was 80 nm, but decreased to 60 nm after annealing. From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy it was found that the chemical composition of the layer changed to indium oxide and indium sulfide from the as-deposited indium hydroxide and sulfate states. Furthermore, the overall atomic concentration of the oxygen in the buffer layer decreased because deoxidation occurred during annealing. In addition, an In-thin layer was inserted between the indium sulfide buffer and CIGS in order to modify the $In_2S_3$/CIGS interface. The $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cell with the In interlayer showed improved photovoltaic properties in the $J_{sc}$ and FF values. Furthermore, the $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cells showed higher quantum efficiency in the short wavelength region. However, the quantum efficiency in the long wavelength region was still poor due to the thick buffer layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.318.2-318.2
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• 2014

The high contact resistance is still one of the major issues to be resolved in CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells. CdTe/Metal Schottky contact induced a high contact resistance in CdS/CdTe solar cells. It has been reported that the work function of CdTe thin film is more than 5.7 eV. There has not been a suitable back contact metal, because CdTe thin film has a high work function. In a few decades, some buffer layer was reported to improve a back contact problem. Buffer layers which are Te, $Sb_2Te_3$, $Cu_2Te$, ZnTe:Cu and so on was inserted between CdTe and metal electrode. A formed buffer layers made a tunnel junction. Hole carriers which was excited in CdTe film by light absorption was transported from CdTe to back metal electrode. In this report, we reported the variation of solar cell performance with different buffer layer at the back contact of CdTe thin film solar cell.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.152-153
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• 2006

The new approach to buffer layer design for CIGS solar cells that permitted to reduce the buffer absorption losses in the short wavelength range and to overcome the disadvantages inherent to Cd-free CIGS solar cells was proposed. A chemical bath deposition method has been used to produce a high duality buffer layer that comprises thin film of CdS and Zn-based film. The double layer was grown on either ITO or CIGS substrates and its morphological, structural and optical properties were characterized. The Zn-based film was described as the ternary compound $ZnS_x(OH)_y$. The composition of the $ZnS_x(OH)_y$ layer was not uniform throughout its thickness. $ZnS_x(OH)_y$/CdS/substrate region was a highly intermixed region with gradually changing composition. The short wavelength cut-off of double layer was shifted to shorter wavelength (400nm) compared to that (520 nm) for the standard CdS by optimization of the double buffer design. The results show the way to improve the light energy collection efficiency of the nearly cadmium-free CIGS-based solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.225-230
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• 2011

CIGS solar cells are kind of thin film solar cells, which are studied several years. CdS buffer layer that makes heterojunction between window layer and absorbing layer was one of issue in the CIGS solar cell study. New types of buffer layer consisted of indium sulfide are being studied these days owing to high price and environmental harmful of CdS. In this study, we demonstrated electrochemical synthesis of indium sulfide film as a buffer layer, which is cheaper and faster than other methods. A uniform indium sulfide film was obtained by applying two different alternating potentials. The band gap of the film was optimized by controlling temperature during the electrochemical synthesis. Using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and diffraction method we confirmed that ${\beta}$-indium sulfide was formed on ITO electrode surface.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.146-148
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• 2012

In our study, we have focused on optimizing good quality of ZnS buffer layer by chemical bath deposition (CBD) from a bath containing $ZnSO_4$, Thiourea and Ammonia in aqueous solution onto CIGS solar cells. The influence of deposition parameter such as pH, deposition temperature, stirring speed played a very important role on transmission, homogeneity, crystalline of ZnS buffer layer. The transmission spectrum showed a good transmission characteristic above 80% invisible spectral region. CIGS thin flim solar cell with ZnS buffer layer has been realized with the efficiency of 14.2%.