Substrate effects investigation on photovoltaic properties of n-ZnO/p-Si structure using two-dimensional numerical simulation

Abstract

Silicon (Si) and zinc oxide (ZnO)-based heterojunctions are optoelectronic devices that promise to provide good photonic performance. The n-ZnO / p-Si structure is investigated using two-dimensional numerical simulation by ATLAS Silvaco software. This study investigated the effects of p-Si substrate parameters, such as thickness, acceptor concentration, and minority carrier lifetime, on the photonic performances of n-ZnO / p-Si heterojunction, taking into account the interface states and defects in the ZnO emitter layer for a real simulated structure. The simulation results showed that the optimal parameters that allow for better photonic performance are a p-Si thickness of 250 μm, an acceptor concentration of 6 × 1015 cm − 3, and a minority carrier lifetime of 10 − 3 s. The obtained photovoltaic parameters are short circuit current density of JSC = 38.9 mA / cm2, open circuit voltage of VOC = 0.54 V, fill factor (FF) of FF = 59 % , and conversion efficiency of η = 12.36 % .