Monocrystalline CdTe solar cells with open-circuit voltage over 1 V and efficiency of 17%

Zhao, Yuan; Boccard, Mathieu; Liu, Shi; Becker, Jacob; Zhao, Xin -Hao; Campbell, Calli M.; Suarez, Ernesto; Lassise, Maxwell B.; Holman, Zachary; Zhang, Yong -Hang

doi:10.1038/NENERGY.2016.67

Title: Monocrystalline CdTe solar cells with open-circuit voltage over 1 V and efficiency of 17%

Journal Article · Mon May 16 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Nature Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/NENERGY.2016.67· OSTI ID:1579838

Zhao, Yuan ^[1]; Boccard, Mathieu ^[1]; Liu, Shi ^[1]; Becker, Jacob ^[1]; Zhao, Xin -Hao ^[1]; Campbell, Calli M. ^[1]; Suarez, Ernesto ^[1]; Lassise, Maxwell B. ^[1]; Holman, Zachary ^[1]; Zhang, Yong -Hang ^[1]

Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

The open-circuit voltages of mature single-junction photovoltaic devices are lower than the bandgap energy of the absorber, typically by a gap of 400 mV. For CdTe, which has a bandgap of 1.5 eV, the gap is larger; for polycrystalline samples, the open-circuit voltage of solar cells with the record efficiency is below 900 mV, whereas for monocrystalline samples it has only recently achieved values barely above 1 V. Here, we report a monocrystalline CdTe/MgCdTe double-heterostructure solar cell with open-circuit voltages of up to 1.096 V. The latticed-matched MgCdTe barrier layers provide excellent passivation to the CdTe absorber, resulting in a carrier lifetime of 3.6 μs. The solar cells are made of 1- to 1.5-μm-thick n-type CdTe absorbers, and passivated hole-selective p-type a-SiC_y:H contacts. This design allows CdTe solar cells to be made thinner and more efficient. As a result, the best power conversion efficiency achieved in a device with this structure is 17.0%.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0004946; EE0006335; FA9550-15-1-0196

OSTI ID:: 1579838

Journal Information:: Nature Energy, Vol. 1, Issue 6; ISSN 2058-7546

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 170 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (19)

Achievement of More Than 25% Conversion Efficiency With Crystalline Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cell Masuko, Keiichiro; Shigematsu, Masato; Hashiguchi, Taiki IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 4, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2352151	journal	November 2014
High efficiency indium oxide/cadmium telluride solar cells Nakazawa, T.; Takamizawa, K.; Ito, K. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 50, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.98224	journal	February 1987
Time-resolved and excitation-dependent photoluminescence study of CdTe/MgCdTe double heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy Zhao, Xin-Hao; DiNezza, Michael J.; Liu, Shi Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena, Vol. 32, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4878317	journal	July 2014
Optical Properties of Crystalline and Amorphous Semiconductors Adachi, Sadao https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5241-3	book	January 1999
Carrier lifetimes and interface recombination velocities in CdTe/Mg _x Cd ₁₋ _x Te double heterostructures with different Mg compositions grown by molecular beam epitaxy Liu, Shi; Zhao, Xin-Hao; Campbell, Calli M. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4927757	journal	July 2015
Enhanced p-type dopability of P and As in CdTe using non-equilibrium thermal processing Yang, Ji-Hui; Yin, Wan-Jian; Park, Ji-Sang Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4926748	journal	July 2015
Optical investigation of confinement and strain effects in CdTe/(CdMg)Te quantum wells Kuhn‐Heinrich, B.; Ossau, W.; Heinke, H. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 63, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.110277	journal	November 1993
CdTe solar cells with open-circuit voltage breaking the 1 V barrier Burst, J. M.; Duenow, J. N.; Albin, D. S. Nature Energy, Vol. 1, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.15	journal	February 2016
Solar cell efficiency tables (version 47): Solar cell efficiency tables Green, Martin A.; Emery, Keith; Hishikawa, Yoshihiro Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 24, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2728	journal	November 2015
Ultralow recombination velocity at Ga _0.5 In _0.5 P/GaAs heterointerfaces Olson, J. M.; Ahrenkiel, R. K.; Dunlavy, D. J. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 55, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.101656	journal	September 1989
Research strategies toward improving thin-film CdTe photovoltaic devices beyond 20% conversion efficiency Gessert, T. A.; Wei, S.-H.; Ma, J. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 119, p. 149-155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2013.05.055	journal	December 2013
Growth, steady-state, and time-resolved photoluminescence study of CdTe/MgCdTe double heterostructures on InSb substrates using molecular beam epitaxy DiNezza, Michael J.; Zhao, Xin-Hao; Liu, Shi Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4828984	journal	November 2013
CdTe/MgTe heterostructures: Growth by atomic layer epitaxy and determination of MgTe parameters Hartmann, J. M.; Cibert, J.; Kany, F. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 80, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.363714	journal	December 1996
Very low interface recombination velocity in (Al,Ga)As heterostructures grown by organometallic vapor‐phase epitaxy Molenkamp, L. W.; van’t Blik, H. F. J. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 64, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.341298	journal	October 1988
Determination of CdTe bulk carrier lifetime and interface recombination velocity of CdTe/MgCdTe double heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy Zhao, Xin-Hao; DiNezza, Michael J.; Liu, Shi Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4904993	journal	December 2014
Silicon heterojunction solar cell with passivated hole selective MoO _x contact Battaglia, Corsin; de Nicolás, Silvia Martín; De Wolf, Stefaan Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4868880	journal	March 2014
Minority Carrier Lifetime Analysis in the Bulk of Thin-Film Absorbers Using Subbandgap (Two-Photon) Excitation Kuciauskas, Darius; Kanevce, Ana; Burst, James M. IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 3, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2270354	journal	October 2013
CdTe Solar Cells at the Threshold to 20% Efficiency Gloeckler, M.; Sankin, I.; Zhao, Z. IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 3, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2278661	journal	October 2013
Optical enhancement of the open-circuit voltage in high quality GaAs solar cells Steiner, M. A.; Geisz, J. F.; García, I. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 113, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4798267	journal	March 2013

Cited By (25)

Controllable Crystallization of CH ₃ NH ₃ Sn _0.25 Pb _0.75 I ₃ Perovskites for Hysteresis-Free Solar Cells with Efficiency Reaching 15.2% Zhu, Hugh Lu; Xiao, Junyan; Mao, Jian Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201605469	journal	January 2017
Strategies for Analyzing Noncommon‐Atom Heterovalent Interfaces: The Case of CdTe‐on‐InSb Luna, Esperanza; Trampert, Achim; Lu, Jing Advanced Materials Interfaces, Vol. 7, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201901658	journal	December 2019
Applications of Phosphorene and Black Phosphorus in Energy Conversion and Storage Devices Pang, Jinbo; Bachmatiuk, Alicja; Yin, Yin Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201702093	journal	December 2017
Metal‐Organic Frameworks for Hydrogen Energy Applications: Advances and Challenges Bakuru, Vasudeva Rao; DMello, Marilyn Esclance; Kalidindi, Suresh Babu ChemPhysChem, Vol. 20, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.201801147	journal	March 2019
Solution‐processed copper (I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) for highly efficient CdSe/CdTe thin‐film solar cells Montgomery, Angelique; Guo, Liping; Grice, Corey Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3136	journal	May 2019
Ultrahigh‐Detectivity Photodetectors with Van der Waals Epitaxial CdTe Single‐Crystalline Films Lian, Qin; Zhu, Xuanting; Wang, Xudong Small, Vol. 15, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201900236	journal	April 2019
Stable 6%-efficient Sb2Se3 solar cells with a ZnO buffer layer Wang, Liang; Li, Deng-Bing; Li, Kanghua Nature Energy, Vol. 2, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.46	journal	March 2017
A new era for solar Kurtz, Sarah; Haegel, Nancy; Sinton, Ronald Nature Photonics, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.232	journal	January 2017
Exceeding 20% efficiency with in situ group V doping in polycrystalline CdTe solar cells Metzger, W. K.; Grover, S.; Lu, D. Nature Energy, Vol. 4, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0446-7	journal	August 2019
Passivating contacts for crystalline silicon solar cells Allen, Thomas G.; Bullock, James; Yang, Xinbo Nature Energy, Vol. 4, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0463-6	journal	September 2019
Photovoltaic solar cell technologies: analysing the state of the art Nayak, Pabitra K.; Mahesh, Suhas; Snaith, Henry J. Nature Reviews Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-019-0097-0	journal	March 2019
Preferentially oriented large antimony trisulfide single-crystalline cuboids grown on polycrystalline titania film for solar cells Chen, Junwei; Qi, Juanjuan; Liu, Rong Communications Chemistry, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-019-0225-1	journal	October 2019
Photoelectrochemical-voltaic cells consisting of particulate Zn _x Cd _1−x Se photoanodes with photovoltages exceeding 1.23 V Kageshima, Yosuke; Someno, Akihiko; Teshima, Katsuya Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Vol. 3, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1039/c9se00437h	journal	January 2019
Reliability analysis of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well solar cells under thermal stress Huang, Xuanqi; Fu, Houqiang; Chen, Hong Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5006650	journal	December 2017
CdCl ₂ passivation of polycrystalline CdMgTe and CdZnTe absorbers for tandem photovoltaic cells Swanson, Drew E.; Reich, Carey; Abbas, Ali Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5023811	journal	May 2018
Energy band engineering of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well solar cells via AlGaN electron- and hole-blocking layers Huang, Xuanqi; Chen, Hong; Fu, Houqiang Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5028530	journal	July 2018
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
Back-surface recombination, electron reflectors, and paths to 28% efficiency for thin-film photovoltaics: A CdTe case study Duenow, Joel N.; Metzger, Wyatt K. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 125, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5063799	journal	February 2019
Experimental and theoretical comparison of Sb, As, and P diffusion mechanisms and doping in CdTe Colegrove, E.; Yang, J-H; Harvey, S. P. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 51, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aaa67e	journal	January 2018
The energy band engineering for the high-performance infrared photodetectors constructed by CdTe/MoS ₂ heterojunction Deng, Xi-Zi; Zhang, Jin-Rong; Zhao, Yu-Qing Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 32, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648x/ab4013	journal	November 2019
Epitaxial thin film transfer for flexible devices from reusable substrates Jovanovic, S. M.; Devenyi, G. A.; Kuyanov, P. Materials Research Express, Vol. 6, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/aaf264	journal	November 2018
Effect of gelatin on electrodeposition of tellurium from alkaline electrolyte Li, Qing; Wang, Gang; Fan, Jinlong Materials Research Express, Vol. 6, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab4849	journal	December 2019
High open-circuit voltages in lead-halide perovskite solar cells: experiment, theory and open questions Kirchartz, Thomas Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2152 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0286	journal	July 2019
Terawatt-scale photovoltaics: Trajectories and challenges Haegel, Nancy M.; Margolis, Robert; Buonassisi, Tonio Science, Vol. 356, Issue 6334 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal1288	journal	April 2017
Optical and electrical design guidelines for ZnO/CdS nanorod-based CdTe solar cells Ozcan, Can; Turkay, Deniz; Yerci, Selcuk Optics Express, Vol. 27, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.27.00a339	journal	January 2019

Similar Records

Monocrystalline CdTe/MgCdTe Double-Heterostructure Solar Cells With ZnTe Hole Contacts

Journal Article · Tue Nov 22 00:00:00 EST 2016 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics · OSTI ID:1579838

Becker, Jacob J.; Campbell, Calli M.; Zhao, Yuan; +7 more

Loss Analysis of Monocrystalline CdTe Solar Cells With 20% Active-Area Efficiency

Journal Article · Thu Mar 30 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics · OSTI ID:1579838

Becker, Jacob J.; Boccard, Mathieu; Campbell, Calli M.; +4 more

Monocrystalline 1.7-eV-Bandgap MgCdTe Solar Cell With 11.2% Efficiency

Journal Article · Tue Jan 09 00:00:00 EST 2018 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics · OSTI ID:1579838

Becker, Jacob J.; Campbell, Calli M.; Tsai, Cheng-Ying; +6 more

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING

Title: Monocrystalline CdTe solar cells with open-circuit voltage over 1 V and efficiency of 17%

Citation Formats

References (19)

Cited By (25)

Similar Records

Related Subjects