Solar photovoltaics (PV) is expected to be a critical contributor to mitigating
the effects of climate change by helping to satisfy net zero emissions. Since crystalline silicon-based solar cells are close to their practical efficiency limit, further
reducing the balance of system (BoS) costs is only possible by increasing the cell
efficiencies. The most promising candidate is perovskite/silicon (Si) tandem solar
cell technology, which allows efficient solar spectrum harvesting. This relatively
new technology attracts attention due to its potential to dominate the PV market; however, it also brings challenges that must be overcome, like stability and
scalability concerns.
This thesis project focuses on optimizing and characterizing recombination
junctions (RJs) for monolithic perovskite/Si tandem solar cells aimed at improved
performance and stability. Tandem solar cell PV parameter measurements, encapsulated stability measurements, and thin film characterizations are performed
for RJ developments. The optimizations are performed for tandem solar cells
with solution-processing and hybrid methods. Self-assembled monolayer (SAM)
molecules and transparent conductive oxide (TCO) recombination layer (RL)
combinations are optimized to obtain tandems with hybrid technique.
In addition, the influence of the thickness of TCO RL on the tandem devices’
performance is also investigated, particularly solution-processed tandems. The
improvements are observed by thinning down the thickness of TCOs regardless
of the material type.
3
Characterizations revealed that ultra-thin ( 5 nm) amorphous indium zinc
oxide (IZO) RL allows more workfunction shift, homogeneous surface potential
distribution with SAM deposition, and better carrier recombination suppression
at the perovskite/hole transport layer (HTL) interface.
Ultra-thin RL idea is combined with some optical improvements in the device
architecture, and stable high-efficient perovskite/Si tandem solar cells with 32.5%
power conversion efficiency (PCE) and 80% fill factor (FF) values are realized.
In addition, the preliminary examples of tandem devices with a larger active area
(4 cm2
) are presented. Finally, the remaining challenges and alternative concepts
are also discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:kaust.edu.sa/oai:repository.kaust.edu.sa:10754/692838 |
| Date | 11 June 2023 |
| Creators | Yıldırım, Bumin Kağan |
| Contributors | De Wolf, Stefaan, Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) Division, Laquai, Frédéric, Ooi, Boon S. |
| Source Sets | King Abdullah University of Science and Technology |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | 2024-07-09, At the time of archiving, the student author of this thesis opted to temporarily restrict access to it. The full text of this thesis will become available to the public after the expiration of the embargo on 2024-07-09. |
| Relation | N/A |
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