Impact of Thickness and Doping Concentration on Heterojunction InP/Si-Based Solar Cell Performance: Insights from PC1D and Wafer Ray Tracer Simulations

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 School of Physics and Material Studies, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia

2 Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia

3 Institute of Sciences (IOS), Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia

4 Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis Branch, 02600 Arau, Malaysia

5 Mindanao State University Tawi-Tawi College of Technology and Oceanography, Philippines

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate how different doping concentrations and n-region layer thicknesses affected the efficiency of InP/p-Si solar cells. The n- and p-regions were represented by indium phosphide (InP) and silicon (Si), respectively, with band gaps of 1.35 eV and 1.124 eV. To optimize the efficiency and performance of InP/p-Si solar cells, the study systematically varied the doping concentrations over six orders of magnitude, ranging from 1×1014 cm−3 to 1×1017 cm−3, and adjusted the thickness of the n-region layer from 5μm to 30 μm. Reflection, absorption, and transmission characteristics of heterojunction InP/Si layers in the wavelength region of 300-1200 nm were also modelled by wafer ray tracer software. At 450-700 nm wavelength, 50 nm InP sample exhibited minimum reflection compared to all other samples. Trends showed that the absorption decreased with increasing thickness of InP layer between 300 and 920 nm. The data obtained from the absorption measurement at different thicknesses was in agreement with the data obtained from the result of impact of different n-region thickness of InP/p-Si solar cells, where the reduction in InP layer thickness resulted in the increase of absorption, which in turn increased the current due to the higher absorption of photons and the generation of excess electron carriers.

Keywords

Main Subjects

© 2026 The Author(s). Progress in Physics of Applied Materials published by Semnan University Press. This is an open access article under the CC-BY 4.0 license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Progress in Physics of Applied Materials
Volume 6, Issue 4 - Serial Number 13
In Progress
December 2026
Pages 285-291

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History

  • Receive Date: 24 December 2025
  • Revise Date: 24 February 2026
  • Accept Date: 26 February 2026

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