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Numerical simulations of AZO/Zn1−xGexO/Cu2O solar cell are performed in order to model for the first time the impact of the germanium composition of the ZnGeO buffer layer on the photovoltaic conversion efficiency. The physical parameters of the model are chosen with special care to match literature experimental measurements or are interpolated using the values from binary metal oxides in the case of the new Zn1−xGexO compound. The solar cell model accuracy is then confirmed thanks to the comparison of its predictions with measurements from the literature that were done on experimental devices obtained by thermal oxidation. This validation of the AZO/Zn1−xGexO/Cu2O model then allows to study the impact of the use of the low cost, environmental friendly and industrially compatible spray pyrolysis process on the solar cell efficiency. To that aim, the Cu2O absorber layer parameters are adjusted to typical values obtained by the spray pyrolysis process by selecting state of the art experimental data. The analysis of the impact of the absorber layer thickness, the carrier mobility, the defect and doping concentration on the solar cell performances allows to draw guidelines for ZnGeO/Cu2O thin film photovoltaic device realization through spray pyrolysis.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of growth temperature on the evolution of indium incorporation and the growth process of InGaN/GaN heterostructures. Design/methodology/approach To examine this effect, the InGaN/GaN heterostructures were grown using Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) SR4000-HT system. The InGaN/GaN heterostructures were epitaxially grown on 3.4 µm undoped-GaN (ud-GaN) and GaN nucleation layer, respectively, over a commercial 2” c-plane flat sapphire substrate. The InGaN layers were grown at different temperature settings ranging from 860°C to 820°C in a step of 20°C. The details of structural, surface morphology and optical properties were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer, respectively. Findings InGaN/GaN heterostructure with indium composition up to 10.9% has been successfully grown using the MOCVD technique without any phase separation detected within the sensitivity of the instrument. Indium compositions were estimated through simulation fitting of the XRD curve and calculation of Vegard’s law from UV-Vis measurement. The thickness of the structures was determined using the Swanepoel method and the FE-SEM cross-section image. Originality/value This paper report on the effect of MOCVD growth temperature on the growth process of InGaN/GaN heterostructure, which is of interest in solid-state lighting technology, especially in light-emitting diodes and solar cell application.

International audience; This article presents Solis, a new modular, fast, and portable one-dimensional (1D) semiconductor device simulator designed and developed particularly for photovoltaic solar cells. Solis is coded in standard C++, runs natively on Windows and Linux, and is freely available to download. All the physical models and excitation parameters can be fully controlled using the fast embedded Lua scripting engine. Solis includes a useful set of tools coded in C, such as a code editor, graphical device editor, and data plotter. A material parameters database including well-known semiconductors and their alloys is also included. The Solis calculation engine implements the drift–diffusion transport model and takes into account indirect recombination processes (with user-defined deep or shallow levels) as well as radiative and Auger recombination. The anode and cathode parameters, including the refractive index, extinction coefficient, recombination speed, and barrier height for the Schottky contact, are fully included. It natively handles spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization, which is key for the development of devices based on wurtzite materials. The values of all the material parameters can be graded arbitrarily in position, offering flexibility for the simulation of heterostructure solar cells. In addition, Solis offers functionality needed by researchers to analyze the simulation results, including graphing (of the band diagram, carrier concentration, ionized dopant and trap concentrations, current–voltage and capacitance–voltage characteristics, quantum efficiency, etc.) with complete control of the graph and a useful mathematical console. Solis simulation results for a solar cell using Earth-abundant elements are presented herein. One of the main issues in the development of such solar cells, viz. the inhomogeneity due to phase separation in the absorber, is highlighted.

International audience; The development of cost-effective solar cells requires on the one hand to master the elaboration techniques, and on the other hand, an adequate design to optimise the photovoltaic efficiency. These two research topics are closely linked and their association in the research work is the key in the development of novel thin film solar cells. The design associated with numerical optimisation gives the set of optimal physical and geometrical parameters, taking into account the technological feasibility. This will allow elaboration to target the most efficient structures in order to speed up the final device realisation. In this work, we used a new approach, based on rigorous multivariate mathematical global Bayesian algorithm, to optimise a Schottky based solar cell (SBSC) using InGaN as the absorber. The obtained photovoltaic efficiency is close to the conventional structures efficiency while being less complex to elaborate. In addition, the results have shown that the optimised SBSC structure exhibits high fabrication tolerances.

International audience; The performance of a double heterojunction solar cell based on Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) including a tunnel junction was simulated. The most challenging aspects of InGaN solar cells development being the crystal polarization and structural defects detrimental effects, their impact on the solar cell performances has been investigated in detail. The solar cell simulation was performed using physical models and InGaN parameters extracted from experimental measurements. The optimum efficiency of the heterojunction solar cell was obtained using a multivariate optimization method which allows to simultaneously optimize eleven parameters. The optimum defect free efficiency obtained is 24.4% with a short circuit current J SC = 12.92mA/cm 2 , an open circuit voltage V OC = 2.29V and a fill factor FF = 82.55%. The performances evolution as functions of the polarization and the defects types and parameters was studied from their maximum down to as low as a 2% efficiency.

We analyzed and discussed the influence of thickness and doping concentration of the different layers in a-Si(p)/c-Si(n)/a-Si(n) photovoltaic (PV) cells with the aim of increasing its efficiency while decreasing its global cost. Compared to the efficiency of a standard marketed PV cell, elaborated with a ZnO transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer but without Back Surface Field (BSF) layer, an optimization of the thickness and dopant concentration of both the emitter a-Si(p) and absorber c-Si(n) layers will gain about 3% in the global efficiency of the cell. The results also reveal that with introduction of the third layer, i.e. the BSF layer, the efficiency always achieves values above 20% and all other parameters of the cell, such as the open-circuit voltage, the short-circuit current and the fill-factor, are strongly affected by the thickness and dopant concentration of the layers. The values of all parameters are given and discussed in the paper. Thereby, the simulation results give for an optimized a-Si(p)/c-Si(n)/a-Si(n) PV cells the possibility to decrease the thickness of the absorber layer down to 50 ?m which is lower than in the state-of-the-art. This structure of the cell achieves suitable properties for high efficiency, cost-effectiveness and reliable heterojunction (HJ) solar cell applications.

On the road towards next generation high efficiency solar cells, the ternary Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) alloy is a good passenger since it allows to cover the whole solar spectrum through the change in its Indium composition. The choice of the main structure of the InGaN solar cell is however crucial. Obtaining a high efficiency requires to improve the light absorption and the photogenerated carriers collection that depend on the layers parameters, including the Indium composition, p-and n-doping, device geometry.. . Unfortunately, one of the main drawbacks of InGaN is linked to its p-type doping, which is very difficult to realize since it involves complex technological processes that are difficult to master and that highly impact the layer quality. In this paper, the InGaN p-n junction (PN) and p-in junction (PIN) based solar cells are numerically studied using the most realistic models, and optimized through mathematically rigorous multivariate optimization approaches. This analysis evidences optimal efficiencies of 17.8% and 19.0% for the PN and PIN structures. It also leads to propose, analyze and optimize player free InGaN Schottky-Based Solar Cells (SBSC): the Schottky structure and a new MIN structure for which the optimal efficiencies are shown to be a little higher than for the conventional structures: respectively 18.2% and 19.8%. The tolerance that is allowed on each parameter for each of the proposed cells has been studied. The new MIN structure is shown to exhibit the widest tolerances on the layers thicknesses and dopings. In addition to its being player free, this is another advantage of the MIN structure since it implies its better reliability. Therefore, these new InGaN SBSC are shown to be alternatives to the conventional structures that allow removing the p-type doping of InGaN while giving photovoltaic (PV) performances at least comparable to the standard multilayers PN or PIN structures., Comment: Superlattices and Microstructures, Elsevier, 2016

International audience; The Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) III-Nitride ternary alloy has the potentiality to allow achieving high efficiency solar cells through the tuning of its band gap by changing the Indium composition. It also counts among its advantages a relatively low effective mass, high carriers' mobility, a high absorption coefficient along with good radiation tolerance. However, the main drawback of InGaN is linked to its p-type doping, which is difficult to grow in good quality and on which ohmic contacts are difficult to realize. The Schottky solar cell is a good alternative to avoid the p-type doping of InGaN. In this report, a comprehensive numerical simulation, using mathematically rigorous optimization approach based on state-of-the-art optimization algorithms, is used to find the optimum geometrical and physical parameters that yield the best efficiency of a Schottky solar cell within the achievable device fabrication range. A 18.2% efficiency is predicted for this new InGaN solar cell design.

In this report, we study, by means of numerical simulation, the impact of the active layer properties and device geometry on the performance of the “solar blind” UV MSM detector based on AlGaN and BGaN alloys. The parameters investigated, using the Silvaco Athena and Atlas tools, were: (i) the Schottky contact width and thickness; (ii) the ternary (AlGaN or BGaN) physical properties, including the active layer thickness, n-type doping concentration and traps density. We implement the physical models and the ternary material properties, taken from literature or, if not available (as for the new BGaN ternary), from the interpolation between the binary materials weighted by the mole fractions. We have found that: (i) the photocurrent is highly improved by optimizing the device geometry, in particular the Schottky contact semi-transparency (depending on the contact thickness and metal absorption spectrum) and width; (ii) the doping and traps highly impact the device spectral response, and, in particular, a compromise in the doping concentration must be reached in order to maximize the detector performances; (iii) the incorporation of a small amount of boron in the active layer improves the detector spectral response. These results give us a powerful tool in order to understand quantitatively the impact of elaboration and processing conditions on the photodetector characteristics and thus identify the key issues in technology development (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

International audience; Large internal gains that can be obtained in wide band gap semiconductors-based (GaN and ZnO types) Schottky and/or metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors are generally accompanied by large dark current and time response. We show that, using quasi-alloy of BGaN/GaN superlattices as the active layer, the dark current can be lowered while maintaining high internal gain (up to 3 x 10(4)) for optical power in the nW range and low time response (few tens of ns) for optical power in the W range. Furthermore, the boron incorporation allows the tuning of the cutoff wavelength

We develop a generalized model in order to calculate the point spread functions in both the focal and the detection planes for the electric field strengths. In these calculations, based on the generalized Jones matrices, we introduce all of the interdependent parameters that could influence the spatial resolution of a confocal optical microscope. Our proposed model is more nearly complete, since we make no approximations of the scattered electric fields. These results can be successfully applied to standard confocal optical techniques to get a better understanding for more quantitative interpretations of the probe.

We study, by means of numerical simulation, the impact of doping and traps on the performance of the "solar blind" ultraviolet Schottky detector based on AlGaN. We implemented physical models and AlGaN material properties taken from the literature, or from the interpolation between the binary materials (GaN and AlN) weighted by the mole fractions. We found that doping and traps highly impact the spectral response of the device, and in particular a compromise in the doping concentration must be reached in order to optimize the spectral response of the detector. These results give us a powerful tool to quantitatively understand the impact of elaboration and processing conditions on photodetector characteristics, and thus identify the key issues for the development of the technology.

Chemistry of co-evaporated CIGS surfaces submitted to chemical treatments relevant to fabrication steps were investigated by XPS and admittance spectroscopy. A Se XPS signal specific of the CIGS surfaces was identified. Surface states seen by Admittance and surface chemistry are seen to change significantly during the elaboration steps. Consequences for device elaboration are briefly discussed.