Performance Improvement of Graded Bandgap Solar Cell via Optimization of Energy Levels Alignment in Si Quantum Dot, TiO 2 Nanoparticles, and Porous Si.

Charge carriers' generation from zinc includes silicon quantum dots (ZnSiQDs) layer sandwiched in-between porous silicon (PSi) and titania nanoparticles (TiO₂NPs) layer-based solar cell is an efficient way to improve the cell's performance. In this view, ZnSiQDs layer with various QDs sizes have been inserted, separating the PSi and TiO₂NPs layers to achieve some graded bandgap quantum dot solar cells (GBQDSCs). In this process, ZnSiQDs of mean diameter 1.22 nm is first prepared via the top-down method. Next, ZnSiQDs have been re-grown using the bottom-up approach to get various mean diameters of 2.1, 2.7 and 7.4 nm. TiO₂NPs of mean diameter in the range of 3.2 to 33.94 nm have been achieved via thermal annealing. The influence of different ZnSiQDs sizes on the designed GBGQDSCs performance has been determined. The proposed cell attains a short circuit current of 40 mA/cm² and an efficiency of 4.9%. It has been shown that the cell performance enhances by optimizing the energy levels alignment in the PSi, ZnSiQDs, TiO₂NPs layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]