Theoretical Analysis of Charge Transport and Recombination Losses in Thin Film Solar Cell Architectures

Solomon Atta; Emeka E. Onyishi; Stephen A. Appiah

doi:10.56201/ijemt.v10.no10.2024.pg147.170

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Theoretical Analysis of Charge Transport and Recombination Losses in Thin Film Solar Cell Architectures

Solomon Atta, Emeka E. Onyishi, Stephen A. Appiah

Abstract

Thin film photovoltaic technologies occupy a central position in the global transition toward low cost, scalable solar electricity, yet their power conversion efficiencies remain constrained by fundamental electronic loss processes that operate at the level of individual charge carriers. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of charge transport and recombination losses in the principal thin film solar cell architectures: cadmium telluride, copper indium gallium diselenide, hydrogenated amorphous silicon, and metal halide perovskites. The analysis is developed within the semiclassical drift diffusion framework, coupling the carrier continuity equations to the Poisson equation and treating recombination through the radiative, Shockley Read Hall, Auger, and interface channels. Device level consequences are examined through the diode equation, the diode ideality factor, the open circuit voltage deficit, and the reciprocity relation linking photovoltaic quantum efficiency to electroluminescent emission. The comparative assessment shows that each architecture is limited by a characteristic loss signature: back contact and bulk lifetime limitations in cadmium telluride, absorber and interface defect states in copper indium gallium diselenide, dispersive transport and metastable defect creation in amorphous silicon, and interfacial recombination at transport layer contacts in perovskite devices. The framework is further applied to kesterite absorbers, where band tail states impose a distinctive and largely radiative voltage limitation, and to tandem configurations in which the loss budgets of dissimilar subcells are coupled through current matching and a shared recombination junction. The analysis demonstrates that open circuit voltage deficits provide the most sensitive single diagnostic of nonradiative recombination, and that continued efficiency gains depend on the coordinated suppression of deep level defect densities, passivation of interfaces and grain boundaries, and preservation of long carrier diffusion lengths relative to absorber thickness.

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Theoretical Analysis of Charge Transport and Recombination Losses in Thin Film Solar Cell Architectures

Abstract

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