Study on the n-β-FeSi2/p-Si solar cells under different illuminated directions

The n-β-FeSi2/p-Si heterojunction solar cells can be used under illumination of β-FeSi2 side or Si side. In this work, the effects of illuminated direction on the photovoltaic properties of n-β-FeSi2/p-Si heterojunction solar cells were analyzed by numerical methods. The calculated results show that the n-β-FeSi2/p-Si heterojunction solar cell under illumination of β-FeSi2 side has superior photovoltaic properties, which is consisting with the experimental reports. For the illumination of Si side, the photo-generated carriers in the back surface of Si substrate are far from the built-in electric field, resulting in the reduced conversion efficiency. The calculated results indicate that we should choose the illumination of β-FeSi2 side for n-β-FeSi2/p-Si heterojunction solar cell application.