Superior stability of ultra thin CdTe solar cells with simple Cu/Au back contact

Rimmaudo, I.; Salavei, Andrei; Xu, Bing; Mare, Simone Di; Romeo, Alessandro

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2014.10.001

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…By attributing the device degradation to the defect increment, one can consider the effect of any particular stress condition on the device parameters since, practically, it has been shown that the defect creation/annihilation is unequal under a specific situation. Electron beam induced current (EBIC) measurements and ALT experiments revealed that the devices significantly degrade under annealing at high temperatures whereas they recover when they are short-circuited under dark rest conditions (Harju et al, 2000;Rimmaudo et al, 2014;Fisher et al, 2013). Thus we consider the device parameter variation under specific stress conditions and track their effect on the carrier/defect density across the cell.…”

Section: Simulation Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical analysis of degradation kinetics in CdTe thin films

2015

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Section: Simulation Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical analysis of degradation kinetics in CdTe thin films

2015

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“…It is well known that the most efficient CdTe thin-film solar cells are based on Cu: Au back contact [40,41]. CdTe NC solar cells with a configuration of ITO/ZnO/CdSe/CdTe/Cu/Au were fabricated by using different Cu thicknesses.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of ZnTe:Cu Back Contact on the Performance of CdTe Nanocrystal Solar Cells with Inverted Structure

et al. 2019

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CdTe nanocrystal (NC) solar cells have received much attention in recent years due to their low cost and environmentally friendly fabrication process. Nowadays, the back contact is still the key issue for further improving device performance. It is well known that, in the case of CdTe thin-film solar cells prepared with the close-spaced sublimation (CSS) method, Cu-doped CdTe can drastically decrease the series resistance of CdTe solar cells and result in high device performance. However, there are still few reports on solution-processed CdTe NC solar cells with Cu-doped back contact. In this work, ZnTe:Cu or Cu:Au back contact layer (buffer layer) was deposited on the CdTe NC thin film by thermal evaporation and devices with inverted structure of ITO/ZnO/CdSe/CdTe/ZnTe:Cu (or Cu)/Au were fabricated and investigated. It was found that, comparing to an Au or Cu:Au device, the incorporation of ZnTe:Cu as a back contact layer can improve the open circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) due to an optimized band alignment, which results in enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE). By carefully optimizing the treatment of the ZnTe:Cu film (altering the film thickness and annealing temperature), an excellent PCE of 6.38% was obtained, which showed a 21.06% improvement compared with a device without ZnTe:Cu layer (with a device structure of ITO/ZnO/CdSe/CdTe/Au).

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“…It has reached a high efficiency of 22.1% with a short circuit current density (J sc ) of 31.69 mA/cm 2 [2]. However, the efficiency of reported high-efficiency CdTe solar cells in most labs, usually using n-type CdS as window layers [3][4][5][6][7][8], is lower than 17% because of the low J sc values [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. This is due to the small bandgap (E g ) of CdS film and large lattice mismatch between CdS and CdTe [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of CdSe1−xSx films by magnetron sputtering and their role in CdTe solar cells

Wang

et al. 2020

J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

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CdS/CdSe composite window layer is a better candidate than CdS or CdSe single layer for CdTe solar cells. In order to find the underlying reason, the properties of co-sputtered CdSe 1-x S x thin films with different compositions (0 x 1) were examined. XRD patterns show that all CdSe 1-x S x films (0 x 1) are polycrystalline with hexagonal structures and the prominent peak position shows an increasing trend with the increase of x. This suggests that CdSe 1-x S x window layer with a gradient composition, formed during the hightemperature growth and heat treatment of CdTe films, has the gradient lattice constant, meaning the less defect density. This is beneficial to the device performance. Hall measurements show that CdS 1-x Se x films (x C 0.772) are n-type semiconductors with carrier concentrations ranging from 10 15 cm -3 to 10 16 cm -3 . It reveals that CdS/CdSe bi-layers can form a strong built-in electric field with CdTe layer as CdS does. The electronic band structure of CdSe 1-x S x window layer with a gradient composition suggests that the spikes formed in the conduction band are lower than 0.3 eV, which would not impede the electron transport. The valence band alignment is beneficial for the hole transport. Therefore, an appropriate band alignment can be formed between CdSe 1-x S x and CdTe layers. These results reveal that CdSe 1-x S x film is a good candidate as the window layer for high-efficiency CdTe solar cells considering its structural, optical and electrical properties as well as its electronic structure.

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Superior stability of ultra thin CdTe solar cells with simple Cu/Au back contact

Cited by 12 publications

References 13 publications

Numerical analysis of degradation kinetics in CdTe thin films

Numerical analysis of degradation kinetics in CdTe thin films

The Effects of ZnTe:Cu Back Contact on the Performance of CdTe Nanocrystal Solar Cells with Inverted Structure

Properties of CdSe1−xSx films by magnetron sputtering and their role in CdTe solar cells

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