Impact of Doping and Surface Modification on Solar Cell

Abstract

Such massive research in material engineering technique like doping and surface modification has been brought about by the need to make sure that solar cells are efficient and durable. The methods play an essential role in maximizing electronic, optical and structural properties of photovoltaic materials to eliminate the limitation to the charge transport, recombination and long-term stability. Doping allows controlled amount of carrier, carrier band construction and carrier defect passivation on the absorber layers that would directly influence the performance factors, open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current and fill factor that are very important. In the meantime, surface alteration methods, including chemical passivation, plasma treatment and self-assembled monolayers are convenient in eliminating surface flaws, supplementing the light capture in addition to the increase in interfacial contact. Synergistic optimization of power conversion efficiencies of over 25 percent in silicon, perovskite, CdTe and CIGS technologies, has been carried out using controlled doping in addition to engineered interfaces. The current review is a systematic review of the underlying mechanisms of such processes on the basis of the experimental and theoretical advances in the subject. It is emphasized using novel-fangled approaches such as nanostructured dopants, gradient doping, and surface treatment by atomic layer and interface design with the aid of machine learning. Persistent challenges are critically appraised including the dopant stability, scalability of the processes and environmental sustainability. Finally, the paper also talks of the future projections of the generation of next-generation, defect-tolerant and environmentally-friendly solar cells by clever material architecture and architectural designs of hybrid devices.

Keywords: Doping, Surface modification, Photovoltaics, Perovskite solar cells, Silicon solar cells, Charge carrier dynamics, Interface engineering, Bandgap tuning, Passivation, Power conversion efficiency.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17542251