Effect of intermixing at CdS/CdTe interface on defect properties
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401 (United States)
- Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing 100094 (China)
We investigated the stability and electronic properties of defects in CdTe{sub 1−x}S{sub x} that can be formed at the CdS/CdTe interface. As the anions mix at the interface, the defect properties are significantly affected, especially those defects centered at cation sites like Cd vacancy, V{sub Cd}, and Te on Cd antisite, Te{sub Cd}, because the environment surrounding the defect sites can have different configurations. We show that at a given composition, the transition energy levels of V{sub Cd} and Te{sub Cd} become close to the valence band maximum when the defect has more S atoms in their local environment, thus improving the device performance. Such beneficial role is also found at the grain boundaries when the Te atom is replaced by S in the Te-Te wrong bonds, reducing the energy of the grain boundary level. On the other hand, the transition levels with respect to the valence band edge of CdTe{sub 1−x}S{sub x} increases with the S concentration as the valence band edge decreases with the S concentration, resulting in the reduced p-type doping efficiency.
- OSTI ID:
- 22594374
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Finding a junction partner for candidate solar cell absorbers enargite and bournonite from electronic band and lattice matching
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journal | February 2019 |
| Finding a junction partner for candidate solar cell absorbers enargite and bournonite from electronic band and lattice matching | text | January 2018 |
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