Enhancing Low Illumination Response of SHJ Solar Cells for More Sustainable Systems: A Device Simulation Study

We used calibrated numerical simulation models to optimize silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, with a focus principally on higher efficiency at lower illumination. We comprehensively optimized the SHJ configuration for a wide variation of absorber doping/resistivity (5×1014 cm-3 - 5×1017 cm-3/ 9.05 – 0.032 Ω.cm).A combination of a moderate to high doped absorber, together with a doped a-Si:H(p) contact layer for an optimized front electrode workfunction, further boosts efficiency irrespective of illumination. The other advantage of our optimization is the relaxed requirements of a higher work function of the front electrode necessary for a hole-selective contact in SHJ solar cells.