Water-Assisted Lift-Off Process for Flexible CdTe Solar Cells

Bista, Sandip Singh; Li, Deng-Bing; Rijal, Suman; Neupane, Sabin; Awni, Rasha A.; Jiang, Chun-Sheng; Xiao, Chuanxiao; Subedi, Kamala Khanal; Song, Zhaoning; Phillips, Adam B.; Wen, Xixing; Ellingson, Randall J.; Heben, Michael J.; Yan, Yanfa

doi:10.1021/acsaem.2c03287

Water-Assisted Lift-Off Process for Flexible CdTe Solar Cells

Journal Article · Mon Jan 09 23:00:00 EST 2023 · ACS Applied Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.2c03287· OSTI ID:1924017

^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Neupane, Sabin ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[3]; Subedi, Kamala Khanal ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Wen, Xixing ^[4]; ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]

University of Toledo, OH (United States). Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC)
Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, Unites States
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States). Materials Science Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (United States)

In recent years, various lift-off methods have been developed to fabricate lightweight and flexible cadmium telluride (CdTe)-based solar cells. In this work, we report flexible cadmium sulfide (CdS)/CdTe solar cells using a water-assisted lift-off approach. Here we demonstrate that an additional cadmium chloride treatment for the CdS film is critical to improve the grain size of CdS and the post-deposited CdTe film and the electron conductivity of the CdS film. As a result, the quality of the CdS/CdTe front junction is significantly improved with reduced nonradiative recombination. Finally, our lightweight and flexible polycrystalline CdTe solar cells demonstrate a champion power conversion efficiency of 12.6%.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

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

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office; Air Force Research Laboratory; US Department of Defense (DoD)

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

OSTI ID:: 1924017

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5K00-85273; MainId:86046; UUID:4516c8c8-4f78-4518-be1a-1efabf88bdf1; MainAdminID:68696

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Energy Materials, Journal Name: ACS Applied Energy Materials Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 6; ISSN 2574-0962

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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