A molecular dynamics study on defect reduction in thin film Cd<inf>1&#x2212;x</inf>Zn<inf>x</inf>Te/CdS solar cells

Abstract

Recently developed molecular dynamics models have been applied to study the formation of defects during growth of ZnTe-on-CdS multilayers. Our studies indicated that misfit dislocations are formed during growth, and the dislocation density can be reduced if the ZnTe layer is grown in a nano island configuration as opposed to a continuous film. These results highlight the use of molecular dynamics methods in providing valuable defect formation mechanism insight and guiding experimental efforts to produce high efficiency Cd 1-x Zn x Te solar cells.

Simulation in thin film technology

“…Here, especially the influence of contaminants on the layer growth and the resulting properties is of interest. Again, suitable models based on MD can be applied to investigate this topic in detail (see for example [23]). A basic approach for investigating the influence of defects on layer growth can be realized applying structured substrates as shown in figure 2 (right).…”