Semiconductor Physics, Quantum Electronics & Optoelectronics, 28 (3), P. 351–359 (2025).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/spqeo28.03.351

Characterization and optimization features of high-efficiency silicon solar cells with dominating surface recombination

A.V. Sachenko^1*, V.P. Kostylov^1*, I.O. Sokolovsky¹, A.I. Shkrebtii<sup>2

1</sup>V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, NAS of Ukraine, 41 Nauky Ave., 03028 Kyiv, Ukraine
²Faculty of Science, Ontario Tech University, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON, L1G 0C5 Canada
*Corresponding author e-mail: avsacenko@gmail.com, vkost@isp.kiev.ua

Abstract. This work investigates the features of modeling photoconversion processes in highly efficient solar cells based on silicon single crystal, where the contribution of surface recombination significantly prevails over the contributions of recombination in the space charge region (SCR) and non-radiative excitonic recombination involving impurity centers. It is shown that in this case, the key characteristics of the photoconversion process, namely the dark and light current-voltage characteristics and the dependences of the output power of SС, obtained with account of recombination in the SCR and non-radiative excitonic recombination involving impurity centers, practically coincide with each other. The results of modeling were compared with the experiment for the SС from two works, where the above-mentioned conditions occur. The analysis confirmed the consistency of the theoretical dependences obtained with and without account recombination in the SCR and non-radiative exciton recombination with the experimental data. It is shown that optimizing the base doping level and thickness of the studied SC causes an increase in its efficiency from 24.37% to 24.62%. The results obtained in this work allow to explain why previously the recombination in the SCR was not taken into account in the theoretical modeling of the characteristics of the SС based on silicon single crystal in the overwhelming number of works, and also to show that the general approach is valid in the case of any ratio between the components of the recombination currents in single-crystalline silicon.

Keywords: modeling, silicon solar cell, surface recombination rate, recombination in SCR, photoconversion efficiency.