High-efficiency, flexible CdTe solar cells on ultra-thin glass substrates

Journal Article · Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4916634· OSTI ID:22398835

Mahabaduge, H. P.; Rance, W. L.; Burst, J. M.; Reese, M. O.; Gessert, T. A.; Metzger, W. K.; Barnes, T. M. ^[1]; Meysing, D. M.; Wolden, C. A.; Li, J.; Beach, J. D. ^[2]; Garner, S. ^[3]

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1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401 (United States)
2. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401 (United States)
3. Corning, Inc., Corning, New York 14831 (United States)

Flexible, high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells can enable applications that take advantage of high specific power, flexible form factors, lower installation and transportation costs. Here, we report a certified record efficiency of 16.4% for a flexible CdTe solar cell that is a marked improvement over the previous standard (14.05%). The improvement was achieved by replacing chemical-bath-deposited CdS with sputtered CdS:O and also replacing the high-temperature sputtered ZnTe:Cu back contact layer with co-evaporated and rapidly annealed ZnTe:Cu. We use quantum efficiency and capacitance-voltage measurements combined with device simulations to identify the reasons for the increase in efficiency. Both device simulations and experimental results show that higher carrier density can quantitatively account for the increased open circuit voltage (V{sub OC}) and Fill Factor (FF), and likewise, the increase in short circuit current density (J{sub SC}) can be attributed to the more transparent CdS:O.

• OSTI ID: 22398835
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 13; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANNEALING
CADMIUM SULFIDES
CADMIUM TELLURIDES
CAPACITANCE
CARRIER DENSITY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CURRENT DENSITY
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
FILL FACTORS
FORM FACTORS
GLASS
LAYERS
QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
SOLAR CELLS
SPUTTERING
SUBSTRATES
ZINC TELLURIDES