An Extended Approach on Power Conversion Efficiency Enhancement Through Deposition of ZnS-Al2S3 Blends on Silicon Solar Cells

Transparent zinc sulfide (ZnS)-aluminium sulfide (Al2S3) composite thin-films are deposited on silicon solar cells through radio frequency (RF) sputtering method at room temperature to investigate the structural, optical, electrical, and thermal characteristics. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals the presence of the powder sample (ZnS-Al2S3) and its average crystallite size is 15.83 nm. The minimum electrical resistivity (ρ), maximum hall mobility (μ), and carrier concentration (N) of ZnS-Al2S3 nano-layer coated solar cells are measured to be 2.98 × 10−3 Ω cm, 14.89 cm2 V−1 s−1 and 24.88 × 1020 cm−3 respectively. For a time period of 25 min, ZnS-Al2S3 nano-layer sputter coating produces the maximum power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 19.38% and 21%, obtained at open and controlled atmospheric conditions, respectively. The influence of operating temperature at both these open and controlled atmospheric conditions for ZnS-Al2S3 nano-layer coated silicon solar cells is observed. The ZnS-Al2S3 composite demonstrates the properties of a desirable anti-reflection coating material for enhancing the PCE of solar cells.