Performance Comparison of Si and GaAs Solar Cell due to Deposition of ZnO and SiO2 Antireflection Coating Layer

Abstract

This article provides a new approach to the comparison of the performance of low-cost, efficient, and stable silicon and gallium arsenide solar cells. The design convention becomes challenging due to the absorption and current mismatching of the used antireflection coating layer with device sub-layers. The electrical properties of the proposed devices were analyzed in the presence of zinc oxide and silicon dioxide antireflection coating (ARC) layer, by adopting COMSOL 5.6 simulation software. These monolithically designed single junction solar cells of distinct materials with various band gaps and diverse spectral characteristics furnish the best efficiency with impressive degradation in reflection losses. The wideband antireflection layers are used to reduce reflection losses by reducing the refractive index towards the top surface of the photovoltaic cells. Simulation results provide the optimized values of the parameters of the devices within the range of 200-1200nm wavelength. At a thickness of 0.5μm zinc oxide, silicon solar cell and gallium arsenide solar cell provides efficiency of 16.85% and 10.69% respectively. Deposition of silicon dioxide on zinc oxide enhances the power efficiency to 16.89% and 10.7% respectively. A set of figures including maximum voltage, maximum current, conversion efficiency, short circuit current, and fill factor are presented. This article represents the use of zinc oxide and silicon dioxide antireflection layers with their optimum thickness can provide a better improvement in the device's performance.