Application of copper thiocyanate for high open‐circuit voltages of CdTe solar cells

Paudel, Naba R.; Yan, Yanfa

doi:10.1002/pip.2660

Application of copper thiocyanate for high open‐circuit voltages of CdTe solar cells

Journal Article · Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Progress in Photovoltaics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2660· OSTI ID:1401147

Paudel, Naba R. ^[1]; Yan, Yanfa ^[1]

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization University of Toledo Toledo OH 43606 USA

Abstract

Copper thiocyanate (CuSCN) has proven to be a low‐cost, efficient hole‐transporting material for the emerging organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells. Herein, we report that CuSCN can also be applied to CdTe thin‐film solar cells to achieve high open‐circuit voltages ( V _OC s). By optimizing the thickness of the thermally evaporated CuSCN films, CdTe cells fabricated by close space sublimation in the superstrate configuration have achieved V _OC s as high as 872 mV, which is about 20–25 mV higher than the highest V _OC for the reference cells using the standard Cu/Au back contacts. CuSCN is a wide bandgap p ‐type conductor with a conduction band higher than that of CdTe, leading to a conduction band offset that reflects electrons in CdTe, partially explaining the improved V _OC s. However, due to the low conductivity of CuSCN, CdTe cells using CuSCN/Au back contacts exhibited slightly lower fill factors than the cells using Cu/Au back contacts. With optimized CdS:O window layers, the power conversion efficiency of the best CdTe cell, using CuSCN/Au back contact, is 14.7%: slightly lower than that of the best cell (15.2%) using Cu/Au back contact. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

OSTI ID:: 1401147

Journal Information:: Progress in Photovoltaics, Journal Name: Progress in Photovoltaics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 24; ISSN 1062-7995

Publisher:: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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