Thin-Film Structures for Photovoltaic Cells

Thin-film layer structures paired with strongly absorbing materials such as copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) have been a stable technology for solar cell and photovoltaic applications for roughly three decades. To ensure as high an efficiency as possible, the optical engineer should optimize the materials used and layer thicknesses of the cell. To help with this task, the fast physical optics modeling and design software VirtualLab Fusion provides various tools, like the Stratified Media Component, that allow for an easy-to-use configuration of the layer system, as well as the ability to configure coating materials either by selecting them from our comprehensive in-built database, or by specifying their optical characteristics such as real part of the refractive index and absorption coefficient.

In this newsletter we share an introduction of our Stratified Media Component, as well as a simulation of an setup for a CIGS-based solar cell.