Simulation study on the effects of changing band gap on solar cell parameters

Abstract

We perform the numerical analysis of a CIGS solar cell parameters such as open circuit voltage, short circuit current, maximum power, fill factor, and external quantum efficiency as a function of absorber layer band gap. These parameters are known to be the key parameters of a solar cell to determine its performance. We change the band gap of the CIGS absorber layer by changing its alloy composition. ATLAS SILVACO is used to construct and simulate the CIGS solar cell structure with standard AM1.5 spectra. The open circuit voltage and the maximum power increase almost linearly with the band gap. However, the change in short circuit current and the fill factor with the CIGS bandgap does not show any formal relation. We found that the change in fill factor due to the band gap change is not significant compared to the change in open circuit voltage.