Effect of buffer nature, absorber layer thickness and temperature on the performance of CISSe based solar cells, using SCAPS-1D simulation program

Abstract We report the performance of glass/Mo/CuInSSe(CISSe)/(Zn2SnO4, CdS, SnS2)/ZnO thin films structures using solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS). Thin films solar cells with CuInSSe absorber layer reduce the cost and have comparable performance parameters with the conventional ones. The temperature effect on efficiency and fill factor is less noticeable in solar cell with Zn2SnO4 buffer layer. The average temperature gradient of CdS, SnS2 and Zn2SnO4 based cells value is -0.317 %/K, -0.533 %/K and -0.539 %/K. An efficiency of 18.53 % has been achieved with Zn2SnO4 buffer for Voc, Jsc and FF of 0.5153 V, 45.4 mAcm-2 and 79.17. The desired thickness of the CuInSSe (CISSe) absorber layer is estimated as 1.8 µm. The best performance obtained with Zn2SnO4 buffer can be explained by its higher transmission in the short wavelength range because its high gap 3.35 eV compared to those of CdS 2.4 eV and SnS2 2.24 eV.