Monolithic Selenium/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

TL;DR

This paper reports the first monolithically integrated selenium/silicon tandem solar cell, demonstrating promising open-circuit voltage and insights into key challenges for achieving higher efficiencies.

Contribution

It introduces the first selenium/silicon tandem solar cell with device simulations and experimental validation, highlighting its potential and challenges.

Findings

Achieved an open-circuit voltage of 1.68 V from suns-Voc measurements.

Pseudo fill factor exceeds 80%, indicating parasitic series resistance as a key loss.

Guided by simulations, identified carrier-selective contact materials for improved performance.

Abstract

Selenium is experiencing renewed interest as a promising candidate for the wide bandgap photoabsorber in tandem solar cells. However, despite the potential of selenium-based tandems to surpass the theoretical efficiency limit of single junction devices, such a device has never been demonstrated. In this study, we present the first monolithically integrated selenium/silicon tandem solar cell. Guided by device simulations, we investigate various carrier-selective contact materials and achieve encouraging results, including an open-circuit voltage of V$_\text{oc}$=1.68 V from suns-V$_\text{oc}$ measurements. The high open-circuit voltage positions selenium/silicon tandem solar cells as serious contenders to the industrially dominant single junction technologies. Furthermore, we quantify a pseudo fill factor of more than 80% using injection-level-dependent open-circuit voltage measurements, indicating that a significant fraction of the photovoltaic losses can be attributed to parasitic series resistance. This work provides valuable insights into the key challenges that need to be addressed for realizing higher efficiency selenium/silicon tandem solar cells.