Recombination velocity less than 100 cm/s at polycrystalline Al2O3/CdSeTe interfaces

Kuciauskas, Darius; Kephart, Jason M.; Moseley, John; Metzger, Wyatt K.; Sampath, Walajabad S.; Dippo, Pat

doi:10.1063/1.5030870

Title: Recombination velocity less than 100 cm/s at polycrystalline Al₂O₃/CdSeTe interfaces

Journal Article · Mon Jun 25 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5030870· OSTI ID:1458907

^[1];

^[2]; Moseley, John ^[1]; Metzger, Wyatt K. ^[1]; Sampath, Walajabad S. ^[3]; Dippo, Pat ^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); First Solar, Santa Clara, CA (United States)
Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

Reducing recombination in polycrystalline solar cells by orders of magnitude is currently one of the greatest challenges for increasing thin-film solar cell efficiency to theoretical limits. The question of how to do this has been a challenge for the thin-film community for decades. This work indicates that effective interface passivation is critical. Here, polycrystalline Al₂O₃/CdSeTe/Al₂O₃/glass heterostructures are grown, and a combination of spectroscopic, microscopic, and time-resolved electro-optical measurements demonstrates that the interface recombination velocity at alumina/thin-film interfaces can be less than 100 cm/s. This is three orders of magnitude less than typical CdTe interfaces without passivation, commensurate with single-crystal epitaxial CdMgSeTe/CdSeTe/CdMgSeTe double heterostructures, and enables minority-carrier lifetimes in polycrystalline CdSeTe well above 100 ns. Microscopic interfacial electric-field measurements identify the field effect as a potential mechanism for polycrystalline Al₂O₃/CdSeTe interface passivation. Furthermore, the results provide guidance for modeling and interface passivation in devices and indicate future paths to realize highly efficient thin-film solar cells.

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

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308; 30306; 30307; EE0007365

OSTI ID:: 1458907

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1457491

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5900-71105

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 26; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 34 works

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Understanding the role of selenium in defect passivation for highly efficient selenium-alloyed cadmium telluride solar cells Fiducia, Thomas A. M.; Mendis, Budhika G.; Li, Kexue Nature Energy, Vol. 4, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0389-z	journal	May 2019
Thin‐film solar cells exceeding 22% solar cell efficiency: An overview on CdTe-, Cu(In,Ga)Se ₂ -, and perovskite-based materials Powalla, Michael; Paetel, Stefan; Ahlswede, Erik Applied Physics Reviews, Vol. 5, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5061809	journal	December 2018
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Title: Recombination velocity less than 100 cm/s at polycrystalline Al2O3/CdSeTe interfaces

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References (41)

Cited By (6)

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Title: Recombination velocity less than 100 cm/s at polycrystalline Al₂O₃/CdSeTe interfaces