Performance Analysis of 0.4–1.2-μm CdTe Solar Cells

doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/jphotov.2019.2947556

Title: Performance Analysis of 0.4–1.2-μm CdTe Solar Cells

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Abstract

Thin-film CdTe solar cells with an absorber thickness range of 0.4 to 1.2 μm were fabricated by close-space sublimation on a transparent MgZnO window layer. Microscopy cross sections showed that a significant fraction of the CdTe crystallites extended throughout the absorber layer, and capacitance measurements demonstrated that the absorbers were depleted into forward bias. Current and fill factor loss analyses were used to identify dominant loss mechanisms in the devices as a function of absorber thickness, and photoluminescence measurements were increasingly influenced by back-surface recombination as the absorber was made thinner. Furthermore, the thinner CdTe devices showed modest current and fill factor reduction but overall good diode quality, and the highest efficiency of 15% was achieved with 1.2 μm CdTe.

Authors:

^[1]; Drayton, Jennifer A. ^[1];

^[1]

Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

Publication Date:: 2019-11-08

Research Org.:: Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

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

OSTI Identifier:: 1721472

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0007543

Resource Type:: Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2156-3381

Publisher:: IEEE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; Close-space sublimation (CSS); loss analysis; photoluminescence (PL); thin cadmium telluride (CdTe)

Citation Formats


                    Bothwell, Alexandra M., Drayton, Jennifer A., and Sites, James R. Performance Analysis of 0.4–1.2-μm CdTe Solar Cells.  United States: N. p., 2019. 
        Web.  doi:10.1109/jphotov.2019.2947556.

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                    Bothwell, Alexandra M., Drayton, Jennifer A., & Sites, James R. Performance Analysis of 0.4–1.2-μm CdTe Solar Cells.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/jphotov.2019.2947556

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                    Bothwell, Alexandra M., Drayton, Jennifer A., and Sites, James R. Fri .  
        "Performance Analysis of 0.4–1.2-μm CdTe Solar Cells".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/jphotov.2019.2947556.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1721472.

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@article{osti_1721472,

  title        = {Performance Analysis of 0.4–1.2-μm CdTe Solar Cells},

  author       = {Bothwell, Alexandra M. and Drayton, Jennifer A. and Sites, James R.},

  abstractNote = {Thin-film CdTe solar cells with an absorber thickness range of 0.4 to 1.2 μm were fabricated by close-space sublimation on a transparent MgZnO window layer. Microscopy cross sections showed that a significant fraction of the CdTe crystallites extended throughout the absorber layer, and capacitance measurements demonstrated that the absorbers were depleted into forward bias. Current and fill factor loss analyses were used to identify dominant loss mechanisms in the devices as a function of absorber thickness, and photoluminescence measurements were increasingly influenced by back-surface recombination as the absorber was made thinner. Furthermore, the thinner CdTe devices showed modest current and fill factor reduction but overall good diode quality, and the highest efficiency of 15% was achieved with 1.2 μm CdTe.},

  doi          = {10.1109/jphotov.2019.2947556},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1721472},
  journal      = {IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics},

  issn         = {2156-3381},

  number       = 1,

  volume       = 10,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2019},

  month        = {11}

}

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