Coupled optoelectronic simulation and optimization of thin-film photovoltaic solar cells. (English) Zbl 07504712
J. Comput. Phys. 407, Article ID 109242, 24 p. (2020); corrigendum ibid. 418, Article ID 109561, 1 p. (2020).
Summary: A design tool was formulated for optimizing the efficiency of inorganic, thin-film, photovoltaic solar cells. The solar cell can have multiple semiconductor layers in addition to antireflection coatings, passivation layers, and buffer layers. The solar cell is backed by a metallic grating which is periodic along a fixed direction. The rigorous coupled-wave approach is used to calculate the electron-hole-pair generation rate. The hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method is used to solve the drift-diffusion equations that govern charge-carrier transport in the semiconductor layers. The chief output is the solar-cell efficiency which is maximized using the differential evolution algorithm to determine the optimal dimensions and bandgaps of the semiconductor layers.
Keywords:
solar cell; coupled optoelectronic simulation; drift-diffusion model; hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method; rigorous coupled-wave approachSoftware:
SolcoreReferences:
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