Design and simulation of nitrogenated holey graphene (C₂N) based heterostructure solar cell by SCAPS-1D

The nitrogenated holey Graphene (C₂N) based solar cell has been modeled and analyzed by using SCAPS-1D. Initially, a reported structure (TCO/IGZO/C₂N) has been considered and improved by incorporating Al and Pt as front and back contact, respectively. Then, a novel device structure (Al/TCO/IGZO/C₂N/CZT/Pt) has been proposed by inserting a BSF layer with heavily doped p-CZT material. The outcomes of the suggested cell structure have been analyzed numerically by changing different physical parameters. The absorber and BSF layer's thickness has been optimized as 0.6 μm and 0.4 μm, respectively. The cell performance is significantly declined when the bulk defect density in C₂N exceeds the value of 10¹⁵ cm^-3. The rising of device operating temperature shows a negative effect on performance. From this analysis, the structure has been optimized according to device performance. The optimized results have been achieved with the V_OC, J_SC, FF and efficiency (eta) of 1.40 V, 22.59 mA/cm², 89.02%, and 28.16%, respectively. This research contributes to enriching the knowledge on the field of C₂N materials and its use in optoelectronic applications.