Sputtered Aluminum Oxide and p+ Amorphous Silicon Back-Contact for Improved Hole Extraction in Polycrystalline CdSexTe1-x and CdTe Photovoltaics

Conference · Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · 2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/pvsc40753.2019.8980466· OSTI ID:1772060

Danielson, Adam; Abbas, Ali; Walls, John M.; Holman, Zachary; Sampath, Walajabad; Munshi, Amit; Onno, Arthur; Weigand, William; Kindvall, Anna; Reich, Carey; Yu, Zhengshan J.; Shi, Jianwei; Kuciauskas, Darius

A thin layer of Al 2 O 3 at the back of CdSe x T e1-x /CdTe devices is shown to passivate the back interface and drastically improve surface recombination lifetimes and photoluminescent response. Despite this, such devices do not show an improvement in open-circuit voltage (V OC. ) Adding a p + amorphous silicon layer behind the Al 2 O 3 bends the conduction band upward, reducing the barrier to hole extraction and improving collection. Further optimization of the Al 2 O 3 , amorphous silicon (a-Si), and indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) layers, as well as their interaction with the CdCl 2 passivation process, are necessary to translate these electro-optical improvements into gains in voltage.

• Research Organization: Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: EE0008552
• OSTI ID: 1772060
• Journal Information: 2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), Conference: 2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English