Performance Analysis of 0.4–1.2-μm CdTe Solar Cells

Journal Article · Fri Nov 08 00:00:00 EST 2019 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/jphotov.2019.2947556· OSTI ID:1721472

Bothwell, Alexandra M.  ^[1]; Drayton, Jennifer A. ^[1]; Sites, James R.  ^[1]

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

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.

• Research Organization: Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• Grant/Contract Number: EE0007543
• OSTI ID: 1721472
• Journal Information: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 10, Issue 1; ISSN 2156-3381
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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