Delft University of Technology

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics

Optimization Algorithms for Improving the

Efficiency of a Tandem Solar Cell

A thesis submitted to the

Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics
in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
in
APPLIED MATHEMATICS

by

Manuela Hooghwerff
4689755

Delft, Nederland
May 2020

Copyright
c 2020 door Manuela Hooghwerff. All rights reserved.
 BSc thesis APPLIED MATHEMATICS

“Optimization Algorithms for Improving the Efficiency of a Tandem Solar Cell”

MANUELA HOOGHWERFF

Delf University of Technology

Supervisors

Dr.ir. J.T. van Essen Dr.ir. R. Santbergen

Other committee members

Drs. E.M. van Elderen Dr.ir. L.J.J. van Iersel

May, 2020 Delft

Abstract

i
Preface

ii
Contents
Abstract i

Preface ii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Problem Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Thesis Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 Literature Review 2
2.1 Structure of the tandem solar cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Optimization Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.1 Simplex Search Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.2 Interior-Reflective Newton Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.3 Genetic Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.4 Simulated Annealing Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.5 Tabu Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 Optimization Methods 5
3.1 Simplex Search Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2 Interior-Reflective Newton Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4 Results 6
4.1 Simplex Search Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2 Simplex Search Method without constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

5 Conclusion 9

6 Discussion 10

References 11

iii
1 Introduction
There are a lot more solar panels on the roofs of houses these days. These solar panels consist of multiple
solar cells which reach a certain efficiency. We want this efficiency to be as high as possible, so we can
use more solar energy.

Solar cells consist of multiple layers that absorb the sunlight and the generated positive and negative
charge carriers are transported to the contacts. The next generation of solar cells is being developed
and these are called the perovskite/silicium tandem solar cells. These tandem solar cells are devel-
oped to reach a higher efficiency. Researchers are using a computer model to predict the efficiency of
such a tandem solar cell. The input for this model are the thickness of each layer in this tandem solar cell.

1.1 Problem Definition

The tandem solar cell, that we are going to study, consists of a silicon substrate, which has a thickness of
200 µm, on which approximately 10 different layers are placed with a thickness between 5 and 500 nm.
The combination of the thickness of each layer determines the efficiency of this solar cell. It takes a lot
of time to calculate all these combinations in a 10-dimensional parameter space, because there are four
parameters that determine the structure of the solar cell and six parameters that determine the thickness
of the layers in the solar cell. Those four parameters, that determine the structure, give us 24 different
structures of the solar cell and in those 24 different structures the thickness of six layers can vary from
40 to 500 nm. Therefore, in order to save some computation time, we will use an optimization algorithm
to determine the highest possible current of the tandem solar cell, and with the highest possible current
we can obtain the highest possible efficiency of the tandem solar cell.

We have to deal with an optimization problem, where we want to find the highest possible current of
the tandem solar cell. Our problem is also a combinatorial optimization problem, since the set of possible
values that can be chosen is too large for exhaustive search. The objective function of the problem is
nonlinear, since the calculation method of the current is nonlinear. The current of the tandem solar cell
is calculated by a function that has been given in [2]. The only constraints that we are dealing with are
a minimum and maximum thickness of the layers and the specific materials that can be chosen for some
layers. The decisions that we can make involve the thickness of the layers and the type of material used
for each layer.

1.2 Thesis Outline

In order to understand the problem completely, we first explain the necessary knowledge of the structure
of the tandem solar cell and the different optimization methods that can be used thoroughly in Chapter
2. Next we explain the methods that can be implemented for any type of solar cell in Chapter 3. Then,
the results of these optimization methods on our specific type of solar cell, namely the tandem solar cell,
are given and analysed in Chapter 4, and finally, there will be a conclusion about which method would
eventually be the best in Chapter 5.

1
2 Literature Review
Before we implement the optimization methods to improve the efficiency of the tandem solar cell, we have
to know what the structure of such a solar cell looks like and which optimization methods are available
and usable for our problem. In this chapter, the structure of the tandem solar cell and the optimization
methods that are of our interest are discussed.

2.1 Structure of the tandem solar cell

The general structure of a solar cell is an absorber with two contacts and an electron and hole transport
materials. This structure can be seen in Figure 1. We refer to the electron transport material and hole
transport material as ETM and HTM, respectively. For various reasons there are more layers that can
be used, such as reaching a higher efficiency for the tandem solar cell. For each absorber, there is a
combination of optimally matching materials to maximize the cell efficiency.

Figure 1: General structure of a solar cell [1]

In order to understand the structure of this solar cell, we have to know what an interface is. An
interface is a part of the solar cell that connects the layers and it makes sure that the majority of the
charge carriers are separated in the solar cell [3]. The structure of the solar cell that we consider has
two interfaces with seven layers in the first interface and three layers in the second interface. In the first
interface, an extra layer can be added, and in the second interface, a pyramid texture can be applied.
The extra layer in the first interface and the pyramid texture in the second interface are two approaches
to reduce the reflection [2]. The reflection loss is one of the most important optical losses and when this
loss is reduced, the solar cell can absorb more sunlight, the current in the solar cell will increase and the
efficiency will increase as well. The combinations of an extra layer or not and a pyramid texture or not
give us four different structures of the solar cell. We study the solar cell that has two absorber layers,
namely one that consists of a perovskite layer and one that exists of a silicon layer. This form of a solar
cell is called a tandem solar cell. From now on when we speak of a solar cell we mean a tandem solar cell.

2
2.2 Optimization Methods
In this chapter a description of each method that we are going to apply on the tandem solar cell is given.
We have chosen five methods, two of those give the local optimum and the other three are more likely to
give the global optimum, however it is not guaranteed. In order to study the influence of the constraints,
we also apply an optimization method that does not consider constraints in an optimization problem.

First the simplex search method is explained. Next we discuss the interior-reflective Newton method.
Then we move on to some more complex methods, specifically genetic algorithm, simulated annealing
algorithm and the tabu search method, which provide us with more options.

2.2.1 Simplex Search Method

The simplex search method is a direct search method that does not involve numerical or analytic gradi-
ents. Let x be a simplex in n-dimensional space, which is characterized by the n + 1 distinct vectors that
are its vertices. These vectors are determined by the method, which assumes an extreme point is known.
In each step of the search, a new point in or near the current simplex is created. The function value at
this new point is compared to the function value at the vertices of the simplex. Usually, the vertices with
the original function value is replaced by the new point, namely the vertices with the highest function
value, which gives us a new simplex. This is repeated until the unbounded case occurs or an optimal
extreme point is found [4].

By means of this method we can find a minimum for the objective function value. This is a local
optimization method. It is interesting to study this method for our problem, since we can obtain the
given results of the optimum and the computation time that is needed for this method. These results
can be compared with the other optimization methods.

2.2.2 Interior-Reflective Newton Method

This method uses a large-scale algorithm in order to find the minimum. This is algorithm is used because
we have a gradient in the function and lower and upper bounds may exist. This algorithm is a subspace
trust region method, which means that it solves an inequality, in order to find the minimum, over a region
of a sub-problem. The algorithm is based on the interior-reflective Newton method which is described
in [5]. For each iteration the method of preconditioned conjugate gradients is used to approximate the
solution of a large linear system.

This method is, just like the simplex search method, the most suitable to find a local optimum.
However, we study this method, since it accepts constraints on the variables of the function. Thus, we
can see what the influence is of the constraints that belong to our optimization problem.

2.2.3 Genetic Algorithm

This is a method that is based on the mechanics of natural selection and natural genetics. The method
selects a certain number of individuals to be parents and then uses them to produce children for the next
generation. By means of a fitness function the population will evolve over successive generations only in
order to optimize the solution. It will eventually reach a local optimum. This is a stochastic optimization
method [6].

The method keeps producing children for the next generation in order to see if that generation gives
a better result. Therefore, we study this method, in order to see if we obtain better results compared to
the two local optimization methods.

2.2.4 Simulated Annealing Algorithm

This method generates a random trial point and the algorithm chooses the distance of the trial point
from the current point by a probability distribution which has a scale depending on the temperature.
Then the trial point distance distribution is set as a function. Next, the algorithm shifts the trial point

3
after generating it and it also shifts each infeasible component of the trial point to a value that has been
chosen uniformly at random between the violated bound and the value of the previous iteration. Then
it determines whether the new point is better or worse and this is checked by an acceptance function.
Eventually the method systematically lowers the temperature and it is storing the best point found so
far. When reannealing, it sets the annealing parameters to lower values than the iteration number. The
algorithm terminates when the average change in the objective function is small relative to the function
tolerance. This optimization method has the ability to guide iterative local search methods to continue
the search beyond the local optimal.

According to [7], this is the most effective method for combinatorial optimization problems. However,
when the scale of the problem becomes too large, it is difficult to reach the global optimum. Therefore,
we study this method to get a clear view on which optimization method gives the best result and which
method is faster in calculating the obtained result.

2.2.5 Tabu Search

This method seeks for a local optimum based on an evaluation function which chooses the highest evalua-
tion move in terms of the objective functions and tabu restrictions. This function selects a solution which
produces the most improvement or the least non-improvement in the objective values at each iteration.
Since it accepts non-improving moves, it becomes possible to return to solutions that have already been
visited and the tabu restrictions are there to prevent such an occurrence. For this method, you have to
determine a forbidding strategy, a freeing strategy, a short-term strategy and a stopping criterion. This
method shares the ability of simulated annealing to guide iterative local search methods to continue the
search beyond local optimal.

This method is most suitable for combinatorial optimization problems, just like simmulated annealing.
These two methods are studied, so that we can see which method is the fastest for our problem and which
method gives the best result as well.

4
3 Optimization Methods
In this chapter, the applications of the five different optimization methods on a solar cell are discussed.
We assume that the solar cell consists of three layers, namely the first layer is the ETM layer, the second
layer is the absorber and the third layer is the HTM layer. First we explain how the simplex search method
works for a solar cell. Next, we show that the interior-reflective Newton method is a better application
for a solar cell optimization problem. Then, we discuss the applications of the genetic algorithm, the
simulated annealing algorithm and tabu search on a solar cell.

3.1 Simplex Search Method

For a solar cell that consists of three layers, there are several combinations of material for each layer
possible. Also the thickness of each layer is of great influence on the current that runs through the solar
cell. The local optimum of the current can be calculated by the simplex search method. The material of
each layer and the thickness that belongs to each layer have to be clarified in a function and a starting
value is needed for this algorithm. Then, the algorithm of this method will create new points in or near
the simplex, which is the starting value in this case. The function values of these new points are compared
to the function values at the vertices of the simplex, and if one of these new points give a better function
value, the simplex is replaced by this new point. Then, the iteration will continue like this, until no better
function value has been found.

The variables of the function value are the thickness of each layer and the material that belongs to
each layer. These can vary in many different ways, so a lot of iterations are needed. If you want to
have certain constraints on these variables, these should be implemented in the evaluation of a specific
solution, since those are not taken into consideration in the method. This can be implemented in such
a way, that if the variable takes a value below the lower bound, then the variable takes the value of the
lower bound. If the value of the variable is above the upper bound, then the value of the variable will be
equal to the upper bound. In this way, the constraints are taken into consideration and the method can
be applied to our optimization problem. Even though, the simplex search method is known as a method
that optimizes a nonlinear function value that has no constraints.

In order to compare the best results, this method will be implemented with constraints and without
constraints. Then, we can clearly see how this method performs without constraints on the thickness of
each layer.

3.2 Interior-Reflective Newton Method

This method can deal with lower and upper bounds, so we can give lower and upper bounds for the
thickness of each layer in the solar cell. For this method, we need a function, where the thickness of
each layer and the material of certain layers can be adjusted, and a starting value for this method. The
function determines the thickness of the layers and the material that is used for certain layers. When
those variables are known, the function can calculate the current of the tandem solar cell, with those
specific thickness layers and material of each layer. The starting value is used to approximate the solution
of a large linear system, where preconditioned conjugate gradients are used in each iteration. In this way,
we obtain the optimum value, when the function value does not get a better value.

The choice of each material in a function can be modelled with integer variables, however, this method
can only deal with continuous variables. Therefore, we can calculate our optimum value with this method
in two ways. In the first way we set the material of each layer beforehand. The other way is to assign
integer values to each material and round the number, that is assigned to each layer, to an integer value,
so that we always have an integer number, which always implements a material for each layer.

These two different ways of implementing this method give us a result on which implementation will
be faster for this method. When there are a lot of materials that can be chosen for each layer, it takes a
lot of time to manually change the materials and calculate the optimum value with this method.

5
4 Results
In this chapter, we discuss the results of each optimization method implemented on the tandem solar
cell problem. For the first two methods, namely the simplex search method and interior-reflective New-
ton method, we used the optimization toolbox from Matlab. For the genetic algorithm and simulated
annealing, we also used the optimization toolbox. For the final method, tabu search, we create an imple-
mentation in Matlab, since this method is not available in the optimization toolbox of Matlab.

For the first two methods we need a function, which calculates the current that runs through the
tandem solar cell. The solar cell has two interfaces, where the first interface consists of eight layers and
the second interface has three layers. The first six layers of the solar cell can vary in thickness and they
all have a lower bound of 40 nm, and an upper bound of 500 nm. There are three layers that can differ
in material, see Figure 2.

Figure 2: Cross-section of the tandem solar cell [ref]

For the material of the first layer we can choose either air or MgF2 . The third layer, which refers
to the ETM layer, has three possible materials, namely spiro-OMeTAD, FTO and NiO2 . For the fifth
layer, the HTM layer, we can choose two materials, which are PTAA and NiO. Finally, we can add a
pyramid texture on top of the second interface. The chose of material is modelled by integer variables
where each value represents a certain material and adding the pyramid texture is modelled as a binary
variable. Now, that we obtained all the given variables, we can calculate the current in the tandem solar
cell by a function in Matlab from [2], that has been given.

4.1 Simplex Search Method

As we mentioned in Chapter 3, there are two ways to implement this method in Matlab. The first way is
an implementation without constraints. We used the function as described above and we give the starting
value that can be found in Table 1, where the starting value is given and the resulting value is given by
(1). The first six variables are the thicknesses of the first six layers. The seventh variable is the material
for the ETM layer, the eight variable is the material for the HTM layer, the ninth variable determines
if the tandem solar cell has an extra layer or not and the last variable determines if a pyramid texture
should be added or not. This is implemented in the optimization toolbox of Matlab, with an accuracy
of two decimals and we obtain the value given by (1) in Table 1. The maximum value for the current is
18.72 mA/cm2 . From this result, we see that the thickness of the ETM layer has a negative value, which
is unrealistic, since a material can not obtain a negative thickness.

Since we do not want to obtain any negative values for the thickness of a layer, we can implement
constraints in the function. The constraints are implemented in such a way, that if the thickness value
gets below 0.04, it becomes equal to 0.04, and if the thickness value gets above 0.5, it becomes equal to
0.5. We take another starting value, since it did not obtain an optimum value with the same starting
value. We used another value and obtained the starting value, as seen in Table 1. The chosen starting

6
 Variables Starting value (1) Starting value (2)
Layer 1 0.1 0.059 0.098 0.098
Layer 2 0.1 0.193 0.065 0.065
Layer 3 0.1 -0.103 0.13 0.13
Layer 4 0.537 0.337 0.471 0.471
Layer 5 0.15 0.264 0.125 0.125
Layer 6 0.15 0.083 0.085 0.085
ETM 0 -0.001 2 2
HTM 0 0.002 1 1
extra layer 0 0.001 1 1
pyramid texture 0 0.001 1 1
Total current 18.72 20.94

Table 1: Results of Simplex Method

value is of great influence for this method. If we change the starting value, then we obtain a higher or
lower maximum current for the tandem solar cell.

4.2 Simplex Search Method without constraints

This method is implemented in two ways, as mentioned in Chapter 3. It is applied to a function in which
only the thickness of each layer can be adapted and to the function described as above.

First we are going to adapt only the thickness layers in the function. For this function, that we used
to adapt only the thickness layers and calculate the current of the tandem solar cell, we can see the results
in Tables 2 - 4. In the left column, the materials that can be used for the ETM layer are given and in
the top row the materials that can be chosen for the HTM layer are given. In Table 2 we have given
the values, that have been obtained after running the method, where the function has an extra layer and
a pyramid texture. In Table 3 the obtained values of the function with an extra layer and without the
pyramid texture are given. Finally, in Table 4 the obtained values of the function without an extra layer
and with the pyramid texture are given.

PTAA NiO
spiro-OMeTAD 16.19 19.63
FTO 17.34 19.48
TiO2 17.49 20.82

Table 2: Results for maximum current with an extra layer and with pyramid texture

PTAA NiO
spiro-OMeTAD 17.06 17.56
FTO 18.71 19.30
TiO2 18.04 19.81

Table 3: Results for maximum current with an extra layer and without pyramid texture

PTAA NiO
spiro-OMeTAD 17.41 16.10
FTO 18.42 17.65
TiO2 19.28 19.31

Table 4: Results for maximum current without an extra layer and with pyramid texture

7
 The obtained values of Tables 2 - 4 are the maximum values, which are given after the interior-reflective
Newton method has run in Matlab. These values are local optimum values, as described in Chapter 2.
Therefore, we can change the starting value of the method to receive a higher maximum current. Different
starting values give us different results for the maximum value of the current of the tandem solar cell. The
starting value that has been used for Tables 2 - 4 can be seen in Table 5, the thickness of the first six layers.

From the three tables, we can see that we get the highest maximum value for the current of the
tandem solar cell if we choose TiO2 as ETM layer and NiO as HTM layer, and we add an extra layer and
the pyramid texture on the second interface. The obtained values for the thickness of the six layers can
be seen in Table 5.

Variables Starting value (1)

Layer 1 0.1 0.098
Layer 2 0.1 0.065
Layer 3 0.1 0.13
Layer 4 0.537 0.471
Layer 5 0.15 0.125
Layer 6 0.15 0.085
Total current 20.82

Table 5: Results of Interior-Reflective Newton Method

However, we notice that the function with an extra layer and with pyramid texture does not give
higher maximum values for every combination of ETM and HTM layer. We can observe that spiro-
OMeTAD and PTAA as ETM and HTM layer, respectively, obtain a higher maximum if remove the
extra layer. The obtained results of the thickness layers can be used in the second way to implement this
method.

Namely, we can use the values for the thickness layers, ETM and HTM layer, the extra layer and the
pyramid texture as a starting value on our function described as above. Our starting value can be found
in Table 6. Then we obtain a maximum current value of 20.93 mA/cm2 and the vector that is underneath
(1) in Table 6.

Variables Starting value (1) Starting value (2)

Layer 1 0.098 0.098 0.1 0.151
Layer 2 0.065 0.065 0.1 0.122
Layer 3 0.13 0.13 0.1 0.129
Layer 4 0.471 0.472 0.537 0.522
Layer 5 0.125 0.125 0.15 0.187
Layer 6 0.085 0.085 0.15 0.095
ETM 2 2 2 1.924
HTM 1 1 1 0.927
extra layer 1 1 1 0.992
pyramid texture 1 1 1 0.993
Total current 20.93 19.22

Table 6: Results of Interior-Reflective Newton Method

However, if we use a different starting value, see Table 6, the second starting value. Then we obtain a
maximum current value of 19.22 mA/cm2 , which is significant less than the obtained 20.93 mA/cm2 , with
a different starting value. The effect of the change in starting values is a disadvantage of this method.
Therefore, it is hard to find a global optimum for the current of the tandem solar cell, because different
starting values give different maximum values for the current. The maximum values, that are found, are
always local optimum values.

8
5 Conclusion

9
6 Discussion

10
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