Introduction to Solar Cells

Dr. Adnan Daud Khan

Associate Professor

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History of Photovoltaics – I
• In 1839, a French scientist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel discovered
the photoelectric effect while carrying out electro-chemical
experiments.
• He places two coated platinum electrodes in a container with an
electrolyte and determined the current flowing between them.
• Becquerel found that the strength of the current is increased when
exposed to light.
• So, it was a matter of the outside photo-effect in which the electrons
move out of a fixed body when exposed to light.

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History of Photovoltaics – II
• In 1876, the Englishmen William Adams and Richard Day found out
that a selenium rod provided with platinum electrodes can produce
electrical energy when it is exposed to light.
• With this, it was proven for the first time that a solid body can directly
convert light energy into electrical energy.

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History of Photovoltaics – III
• In 1883, the New York inventor Charles Fritts built a small “Module”
of selenium cells with a surface area of approximately 30 cm2 that
had an efficiency of almost 1%.
• For this purpose, he coated the selenium cells with a very thin
electrode of gold.
• He sent a module to Werner von Siemens (German inventor and
entrepreneur) for assessment.
• Siemens recognized the importance of the discovery and declared to
the Royal Acadmey of Prussia that with this “The direct conversion of
light into electricity has been shown for the first time”.
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 Solar Cell
• Solar cell is a device which converts solar energy into electrical
energy.
• If we illuminate a pn-junction, the density of minority charge carriers
is increased many orders of magnitude as a result, the drift becomes
dominant over diffusion and the pn-junction generates a large
current.

– Metal

n
Photovoltage
p
Because of this photovoltage,
there will a current flowing
through the ckt.
+ Metal
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Working of Solar Cell
• The working of solar cells takes place in three steps.
• Generation of e-h pairs: When light of energy hf > Eg falls on the cell, the e-h pairs are generated
near the junction.
• Separation of electrons and holes: The E-field established in the depletion region will be used to
separate the e-h pairs. Electrons will move towards the n-side and holes will move towards the p-
side.
• Collection of electrons and holes: Electrons will be collected by the front contact and holes will
be collected by the back contact. So the front contact will have all the electrons and the back
contact will have all the holes. As a result there will be a potential difference b/w the front
contact and back contact.

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The E-field in the depletion region will push the electrons to the n-side terminal and the holes to the p-side
terminal.

When external load is applied, a photocurrent flows because of the photovoltage.

n-type p-type
+h +h h –h h–
+ + ––
+e+e e–e –e
+ + ––
+ + ––

Load
– +
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Now, let us take a diode.

If we apply a voltage, the current will flow through a diode and we will obtain the following IV characteristics.

I
I

Anode ‘P’ Forward bias

V
Diode
Cathode ‘N’ V

Now, we will take the same pn-junction and illuminate it with light.

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 In this case, we will not apply any voltage.

I Here, we have I +
connected a load.
+
RL RL
The pn-junction will act
like a source which will
–
drive current into RL. –

So, when we shine light on the pn-junction, the pn-junction becomes the source of current (means acting like a battery).

Here, the current I will be –ive because it is following in the opposite direction to that of the diode current.

In this case, the pn-junction is driving a current to the load, so it becomes the source of current.
So solar cell is just a diode without a voltage source whose electrons acquire their energy from the photons.
The flow of the current makes the upper terminal of the load +ive with respect to the lower terminal.
Therefore, the diode has a +ive voltage on its anode with respect to the cathode.
This is a forward biased voltage, which causes a forward current to flow back into the diode.
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 • Now, it seems that we have two currents in the circuit at the same time: 1) the current coming out
of the diode, because the diode becoming a source of current due to shining light on it. 2) the
current going into the diode due to the positive polarity across the load. This is the actual current
• To avoid confusion, we will separately show the currents in the ckt. that flows into the load
and it is given by
I = Id – I L.
This current splits at the
V node into the diode Id V
I and into the terminal I. I
+ Id +
RL IL RL
D

– –

When the light hits a solar cell, we model it by current. So we have

used a current source here. Solar cell
Since the current I flows in this
And as light increases, more and more current IL will flow.
Diode ‘D’ is in direction. And the voltage V is retaining
Since, the current flows in a diode from p-side to n-side, so it will parallel with the the same polarity.
be forward bias. current source. So I x V will give us the output power.
So, the difference of the two currents (IL and Id) will flow into the So this whole block act as a source.
load RL. 10
 IV curve of a solar cell

Since, the current I is –ive or opposite in case of solar cell, so the IV curve will be shifted downward.

I Diode current, Id
Dark IV characteristics. In this case, no light
shine on the pn-junction.

Voc
V
Light IV characteristics. In this case, light is shine
on the pn-junction.
Isc Photocurrent, IL
This is the maximum
This is the maximum
current, when RL=0, voltage, when RL=∞,
so the voltage will so the current will
also become zero. become zero.

The current generated by the solar cell will be: I = Id - IL

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 I = I d - IL
Ideally, Id = 0, so
I = 0 - IL
I = - IL Maximum current

Our main objective here is to reduce Id as much as possible and increase IL.
If we increase the intensity of incident radiations, the IL will increase, so the IV curve will be shifted
downward.
I

Voc So IL is a non-linear current variable

V that changes with light intensity.
Voc

Isc

Isc

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The IV curve of solar cell can be flipped as well

I I

Isc

Voc V
V
Voc

Isc

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 For small portion of the IV
curve, the PV cell behaves
more or less like a constant
current source
I
Isc.
For this small portion of the
IV curve, the PV cell behaves
more or less like a constant
voltage source.
V
Voc

So a PV cell has a unique feature of being a combination of constant current source and
constant voltage source.

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 Now let us draw a constant voltage line and a constant current line.
Rs
Likewise, the actual voltage is a slope.
This would imply a series resistance. I
I Id

Rsh V
IL D
The actual current is a slope.
Therefore, it implies existence of a
shunt resistance across a constant
current source.
V
So we can include a non-ideality i.e., a
high value of the shunt resistance.

So, in reality a solar cell can have additional electrical losses, which can be represented as parasitic resistances in the electrical circuit.
Series resistance arises in a solar cell due to i) metal contacts (because metals have resistance), ii) the interface between the semiconductor and metal
contact, and iii) the absorber layer.
The solar cell will lose voltage over the series resistance.
A shunt is a macroscopic defect in the solar cell, which provide an alternative path for the generated photocurrent.
The defect may be a crack through a semiconductor layer or the current path at the edge of a solar cell.
Low shunt resistance means that large amount of current will flow through the shunt, while a high shunt means
that a less or no photocurrent is lost through the shunt.
So a series resistance should be as small as possible and a shunt resistance should be as large as possible.
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Schematic symbol for a solar cell
I

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IV characteristics of Solar Cell
• As the IL (photocurrent) depends upon the intensity of solar
radiations that is shining on your device. So
IL = k Iop
where k is some constant and Iop is the intensity of incident
radiations.
• The total current or net current is I = Id – IL
where Id is the diode current, which is given as

  qV  
I d  I s  exp    1
Is is the reverse saturation current.
  kT  
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 So the net current becomes

  qV  
I  I s exp    1  I L
  kT  

The power can be calculated as: P = I V

   qV   
P   I s exp    1  I L   V
   kT   
  qV  
P  I sV  exp    1  I LV 1
  kT  
For getting maximum power
dP
0 Condition for maximum power
dV
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 d   qV  
 exp    1  I LV  0
dV   kT  
  qV     qV  
so I s exp    1  I sV  exp    I L 2
  kT     kT  

Ignore – 1 here

Now at Voc, the current I = 0

So, V = Voc, and I = 0.
So, the equation of the net current becomes

  qVoc  
I  I s exp    1  I L  0
  kT  
So at Voc, the current is zero.

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  qV  IL
exp  oc 
 kT  Is
take ln
qVoc  IL 
 ln  
kT  Is 
kT  I L 
Voc  ln   3
q  Is 
For maximum power Pm, the voltage will be maximum Vm and the current will also be maximum Im.

Re-write eq (2) for maximum power.

  qVm   qVm   qVm  

I s  exp    I s  exp    I L
  kT   kT   kT  
Ignore – 1 here 20
  qVm   qVm 
I L  I s exp   1 
kT 
4
 kT  

Now, consider eq (3)

kT  I L 
Voc  ln  
q  Is 
take antilog
qVoc
5
IL  Ise kT

Put eq (5) in (4)

qVoc qVm
 qVm 
Ise kT
 Ise kT
1  kT 
 
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 now take ln
qVoc qVm  qV  ln(ab) = ln(a) – ln(b)
  ln 1  m 
kT kT  kT 

qVm qVoc  qV 
  ln 1  m 
kT kT  kT 
kT
ing by
q

kT  qVm 
Vm  Voc  ln 1  6
q  kT 
Now given the max voltage Vm, the corresponding max current can be found as

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   qVm  
I m  I s exp    1  I L 7
  kT  

From this we can get a maximum power.

I

Vm Voc
V

Im
Isc

Area under the shaded region will give you maximum power.

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