Simulation of the efficiency of photovoltaic effect in Si layers by use of AMPS-ID program

Present article is devoted to simulation of the efficiency of photovoltaic effect in Si layers by use of AMPS-ID program. Solar cell operation is based on the photovoltaic effect. The generation of a voltage difference at the junction of two different materials in response to visible or other type of radiation. In general, a solar cell structure consists of an absorber layer, in which the photons of incident radiation are efficiently absorbed resulting in the creation of electron-hole pairs. In order to separate the photo-generated electrons and holes from each other, the so-called semi permeable membranes are attached to the both sides of the absorber. The important requirement for the semi-permeable membranes is that they selectively allow only one type of charge carrier to pass through. An important issue for designing an efficient solar cell is that the electrons and holes generated in the absorber layer reach the membranes. This requires that the thickness of the absorber layer is smaller that the diffusion lengths of the charge carriers. The main parameters that are used to characterize the performance of solar cells are the peak power, the short-circuit current density, the open-circuit voltage, and the fill factor. In this work, the AMPS-ID was used, which solves Poisson equation and the electron and the electron and hole continuity equations by using the method of finite differences and the Newton-Raphson technique program for simulation of two samples hat Si n-type and Si p-type. (author)