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Record |
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Author |
Bercx, M.; Sarmadian, N.; Saniz, R.; Partoens, B.; Lamoen, D. |
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Title |
First-principles analysis of the spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency of photovoltaic absorber layers for CuAu-like chalcogenides and silicon |
Type |
A1 Journal article |
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Year  |
2016 |
Publication |
Physical chemistry, chemical physics |
Abbreviated Journal |
Phys Chem Chem Phys |
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Volume |
18 |
Issue |
18 |
Pages |
20542-20549 |
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Keywords |
A1 Journal article; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT); Condensed Matter Theory (CMT) |
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Abstract |
Chalcopyrite semiconductors are of considerable interest for application as absorber layers in thin-film photovoltaic cells. When growing films of these compounds, however, they are often found to contain CuAu-like domains, a metastable phase of chalcopyrite. It has been reported that for CuInS2, the presence of the CuAu-like phase improves the short circuit current of the chalcopyrite-based photovoltaic cell. We investigate the thermodynamic stability of both phases for a selected list of I-III-VI2 materials using a first-principles density functional theory approach. For the CuIn-VI2 compounds, the difference in formation energy between the chalcopyrite and CuAu-like phase is found to be close to 2 meV per atom, indicating a high likelihood of the presence of CuAu-like domains. Next, we calculate the spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency (SLME) of the CuAu-like phase and compare the results with those of the corresponding chalcopyrite phase. We identify several candidates with a high efficiency, such as CuAu-like CuInS2, for which we obtain an SLME of 29% at a thickness of 500 nm. We observe that the SLME can have values above the Shockley-Queisser (SQ) limit, and show that this can occur because the SQ limit assumes the absorptivity to be a step function, thus overestimating the radiative recombination in the detailed balance approach. This means that it is possible to find higher theoretical efficiencies within this framework simply by calculating the J-V characteristic with an absorption spectrum. Finally, we expand our SLME analysis to indirect band gap absorbers by studying silicon, and find that the SLME quickly overestimates the reverse saturation current of indirect band gap materials, drastically lowering their calculated efficiency. |
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Address |
EMAT & CMT groups, Department of Physics, University of Antwerp, Campus Groenenborger, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium. marnik.bercx@uantwerpen.be |
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Publisher |
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Place of Publication |
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Editor |
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Language |
English |
Wos |
000381428600058 |
Publication Date |
2016-07-08 |
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Series Editor |
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Series Title |
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Abbreviated Series Title |
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Series Volume |
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Series Issue |
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Edition |
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ISSN |
1463-9076 |
ISBN |
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Additional Links |
UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles |
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Impact Factor |
4.123 |
Times cited |
34 |
Open Access |
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Notes |
We acknowledge financial support of FWO-Vlaanderen through projects G.0150.13N and G.0216.14N and ERA-NET RUS Plus/FWO, Grant G0D6515N. The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center) and the HPC infrastructure of the University of Antwerp (CalcUA), both funded by the FWO FWOVlaanderen. |
Approved |
Most recent IF: 4.123 |
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Call Number |
c:irua:135091 |
Serial |
4112 |
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