Development of Novel Thin Film Solar Cells: Design and Numerical Optimisation

The development of cost-effective solar cells requires on the one hand to master the elaboration techniques, and on the other hand, an adequate design to optimise the photovoltaic efficiency. These two research topics are closely linked and their association in the research work is the key in the development of novel thin film solar cells. The design associated with numerical optimisation gives the set of optimal physical and geometrical parameters, taking into account the technological feasibility. This will allow elaboration to target the most efficient structures in order to speed up the final device realisation. In this work, we used a new approach, based on rigorous multivariate mathematical global Bayesian algorithm, to optimise a Schottky based solar cell (SBSC) using InGaN as the absorber. The obtained photovoltaic efficiency is close to the conventional structures efficiency while being less complex to elaborate. In addition, the results have shown that the optimised SBSC structure exhibits high fabrication tolerances.