Thin film photovoltaic devices with a minimally conductive buffer layer

Barnes, Teresa M.; Burst, James

Thin film photovoltaic devices with a minimally conductive buffer layer

Patent · 15 November 2016

OSTI ID:1332109

Barnes, Teresa M.; Burst, James

A thin film photovoltaic device (100) with a tunable, minimally conductive buffer (128) layer is provided. The photovoltaic device (100) may include a back contact (150), a transparent front contact stack (120), and an absorber (140) positioned between the front contact stack (120) and the back contact (150). The front contact stack (120) may include a low resistivity transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer (124) and a buffer layer (128) that is proximate to the absorber layer (140). The photovoltaic device (100) may also include a window layer (130) between the buffer layer (128) and the absorber (140). In some cases, the buffer layer (128) is minimally conductive, with its resistivity being tunable, and the buffer layer (128) may be formed as an alloy from a host oxide and a high-permittivity oxide. The high-permittivity oxide may further be chosen to have a bandgap greater than the host oxide.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

DOE Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308;

Assignee:: Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC (Golden, CO)

Patent Number(s):: 9,496,426

Application Number:: 14/377,763

OSTI ID:: 1332109

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (24)

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