Band alignment of front contact layers for high-efficiency CdTe solar cells

Kephart, Jason M.; McCamy, James W.; Ma, Zhixun; Ganjoo, Ashtosh; Alamgir, Faisal M.; Sampath, Walajabad S.

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2016.05.050

Title: Band alignment of front contact layers for high-efficiency CdTe solar cells

Journal Article · Sat Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2016.05.050· OSTI ID:1534330

Kephart, Jason M. ^[1]; McCamy, James W. ^[2]; Ma, Zhixun ^[2]; Ganjoo, Ashtosh ^[2]; Alamgir, Faisal M. ^[3]; Sampath, Walajabad S. ^[1]

Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
PPG Industries, Cheswick, PA (United States)
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)

Resistive oxide materials play an important role in the front contact of CdTe solar cells. The high-resistance transparent (HRT) or “buffer” layer has been used extensively in CdTe thin-film photovoltaics to enable a reduction in CdS thickness while maintaining near-maximum device voltage and fill factor. SnO₂- and ZnO-based alloys were tested as HRT layers on a fluorine-doped tin oxide transparent conducting oxide. SnO₂-based alloy HRT layers were deposited via atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD). Alloying ZnO with MgO to create MgxZn_1–xO (MZO) via radio-frequency sputter deposition was explored as a way to reduce the electron affinity of ZnO HRT layers. Additionally, to fully understand the behavior of these materials, many devices were fabricated with either no CdS layer, a sublimated CdS layer, or a sputtered, oxygenated CdS layer. MZO layers resulted in high open-circuit voltage and device efficiency even with the complete elimination of the CdS layer. In both HRT systems, controlling electron affinity to optimize front contact band alignment is an important consideration. Band measurements using photoelectron spectroscopy and synchrotron techniques correlate band alignment measurements with efficiency parameters in the design of HRT and CdS layers.

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Research Organization:: PPG Industries, Pittsburgh, PA (United States); Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0004736; EE0005399; AC02-98CH10886; EE000 4736; EE000 5399

OSTI ID:: 1534330

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1434204

Journal Information:: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 157, Issue C; ISSN 0927-0248

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 126 works

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