A new model of very high efficiency buried emitter silicon solar cell

Abstract In this work, we report a new model of symmetrical silicon solar structure where the emitter is buried, thus, creating many depletion regions in series inside the cell. The photocurrent in this model is computed for AM0 solar spectrum and is compared to the classical p-n junction. The first results of the calculation show that the buried emitter solar cell (BESC) has 10–35% more short-circuit current than the classical cell depending on the surface recombination velocity S. The biggest difference is obtained for S = 10 5 cm/s. The ratio of the photocurrent in the BESC to the classical photocurrent as a function of the absorption coefficient a goes from 1.9 for small α to 6.5 times for α = 10 7 cm −1 with a minimum of 1.1 for α around 1800 cm −1 for S = 10 5 cm/s.