Identification of Recombination Losses in CdSe/CdTe Solar Cells from Spectroscopic and Microscopic Time-Resolved Photoluminescence

Kuciauskas, Darius; Moseley, John; Lee, Chungho

doi:10.1002/solr.202000775

Identification of Recombination Losses in CdSe/CdTe Solar Cells from Spectroscopic and Microscopic Time-Resolved Photoluminescence

Journal Article · Fri Feb 19 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Solar RRL

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.202000775· OSTI ID:1772457

^[1]; Moseley, John ^[1]; Lee, Chungho ^[2]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
California Advanced Research, Santa Clara, CA (United States)

Due to the lowest-cost and best reliability, CdTe solar cells are the leading thin-film photovoltaic technology. Increasing open-circuit voltage by reducing recombination represents the most promising path toward further improvements. Analysis is needed to identify limitations that cause efficiency losses. To achieve this goal for Cu-doped CdSe/CdTe solar cells, time-resolved spectroscopy and microscopy are developed and applied. Recombination lifetimes and radiative efficiency identify that defect-mediated recombination is the dominant voltage loss mechanism. When carrier lifetimes are averaged over many crystalline grains, they increase from 180 to 430 ns when Al2O3 is applied to the back contact. The quasi-Fermi-level splitting correspondingly increases from 880–905 to 906–931 mV, indicating a pathway to overcome the long-standing 900 mV voltage limitation. However, the dominant recombination losses are attributed to the absorber bulk. From microscopic carrier lifetime measurements, it is identified that space charge fields due to charged grain boundaries (GBs) lead to recombination in the CdTe absorber bulk. At high injection, GB space charge fields are screened, but that occurs above 1 Sun excitation conditions. Alloying with selenium in the near-interface CdSeTe absorber region reduces GB losses and is identified as one of the factors leading to high radiative and power conversion efficiency.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308; EE0008974

OSTI ID:: 1772457

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1804782

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5900-78387; MainId:32304; UUID:50104508-3680-40ff-9e1e-462fc68e74aa; MainAdminID:20103

Journal Information:: Solar RRL, Journal Name: Solar RRL Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 5; ISSN 2367-198X

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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