Exploring the Possible Pathways for Enhancing the Photovoltaic Performance of Indium Tin Oxide/Si Heterojunction Solar Cells

In this contribution, the photovoltaic performance of indium tin oxide (ITO)/p‐Si heterojunction solar cell was investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The practical device demonstrated a conversion efficiency of 1.79% with V oc = 180 mV, J sc = 24.2 mA/cm 2 and FF = 41%. The possible reasons behind such realized photovoltaic performance were investigated using Automat FOR Simulation of HETerostructures v2.5 (AFORS‐HET) software. The study unveiled that high defect density at the ITO/p‐Si interface might be responsible for realizing such conversion efficiency. Moreover, the impact of electron affinity and the dielectric constant of the ITO layer on the power conversion efficiency of the device architecture was studied theoretically. However, significant improvement in the device performance was perceived by introducing a thermally grown 1.5 nm SiO x surface passivation layer at the heterointerface. In this case, the best device showed a conversion efficiency of 3.01% with V oc = 240 mV, J sc = 24.10 mA/cm 2 , and FF = 52%. Furthermore, the simulation study demonstrated that introducing a back surface field layer might also enable the realization of adequate power output.