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Cadmium Sulphide is the conventional n-type buffer layer used in thin film Cadmium Telluride solar cells. It is well known that Cadmium Sulphide causes optical losses and sulphur diffuses into the absorber during high temperature activation. Sputterdeposited Mg-doped ZnO (MZO) has been shown to be an attractive buffer layer for Cadmium Telluride solar cells due to its transparency and tuneable band gap. It is also stable to high temperature processing and avoids diffusion of elements into the cadmium telluride absorber during the cadmium chloride activation treatment. However, degradation is observed in solar cells incorporating MZO buffer layers. Analysis of the MZO film surface potential has revealed significant fluctuations in the thin film work function once the layer is exposed to the atmosphere following deposition. These fluctuations are attributed to the high reactivity to water vapour of the MgO contained in the MZO films. This has been analysed using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy to determine corresponding changes in the surface chemistry. The Zinc Oxide component is relatively stable, but the analysis shows that MgO forms a Mg(OH)2 layer on the MZO surface which forms a secondary barrier at the MZO/CdTe interface and/or at the interface between MZO and the Fluorine-doped SnO2. This affects the Fill Factor and as a consequence it degrades the conversion efficiency.

Magnesium-doped Zinc Oxide (MZO) was used as an alternative high resistance transparent layer for CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells. Thin films of MZO were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering and deposited on an Indium Tin Oxide contact (ITO). Thin film CdTe devices including a MZO high resistance transparent layer deposited at above 300 • C yielded a mean efficiency exceeding 10.5 %. This compares with an efficiency of 8.2 % without the MZO layer. The improvement in efficiency was due to a higher open circuit voltage and fill factor. Lowering the deposition temperature of MZO reduced the performance of the devices. Index Terms-magnesium-doped zinc oxide, high resistance transparent layer, thin film, solar cells, CdTe.