Role of oxygen during CdTe growth for CdTe photovoltaic devices

Abstract

Polycrystalline CdTe thin films for CdTe solar cell devices are typically grown using physical vapor techniques such as close‐spaced sublimation or vapor transport deposition with, in some cases, a small amount of oxygen in the process gas. In this report, we discuss the results of growing CdTe films in an environment of pure oxygen using close‐space sublimation. The results show that oxygen has a positive impact on CdTe film quality as it increases charge carrier mobility and lifetime in the absorber layer of CdTe‐based devices. This has resulted in a 10–20 mV improvement in open‐circuit voltages when growing the CdTe in pure oxygen. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cd2SnO4 transparent conductive oxide: a promising alternative candidate for highly efficient hybrid halide perovskite solar cells

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“…Previous studies indicated that for CdTe solar cells, controlled addition of oxygen during CdTe film growth not only passivates bulk and interfacial defects to suppress recombination and improve minority carrier lifetime but also increases the p-type doping, increasing built-in potential and reducing series resistance, both of which are very helpful for efficiency improvement [11][12][13]. Because both Sb 2 Se 3 and CdTe are polycrystalline binary metal chalcogenides, we thus explored the effect of oxygen addition during Sb 2 Se 3 film deposition in the hope that similar beneficial effects could be obtained in our system.…”

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