Effect of CdCl{sub 2} treatment of CdS films on CdTe/CdS solar cells

Book · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:417694

Song, W; Mao, D; Feng, L; Zhu, Y; Aslan, M H; Collins, R T; Trefny, J U ^[1]

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1. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States). Dept. of Physics

The authors investigated the effect of CdCl{sub 2} treatment of CdS films on the photovoltaic performance of polycrystalline CdTe/CdS solar cells. X-ray diffraction studies indicated that the diffusion of S into CdTe is qualitatively the same for CdTe/CdS films fabricated with both as-deposited and CdCl{sub 2}-treated CdS. A major difference was observed in the extent of Te diffusion into CdS for the two types of CdS films. Full conversion of CdS into CdS{sub 1{minus}y}Te{sub y} was observed for films prepared with as-deposited CdS, while the formation of the ternary phase was below the detection limit for films prepared with CdCl{sub 2}-treated CdS. Photoluminescence measurements confirmed this result. The difference in interdiffusion leads to differences in optical transmission of CdS films and spectral response of CdTe/CdS solar cells. An increase of 2.7 mA/cm{sup 2} in short-circuit current density was observed as a result of improved spectral response in the wavelength range of 500--600 nm for the CdCl{sub 2}-treated CdS.

• Sponsoring Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
• OSTI ID: 417694
• Report Number(s): CONF-960401--; ISBN 1-55899-329-0
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
ANNEALING
CADMIUM CHLORIDES
CADMIUM SULFIDE SOLAR CELLS
CADMIUM TELLURIDE SOLAR CELLS
CHEMICAL COATING
CURRENT DENSITY
DIFFUSION
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRODEPOSITION
ETCHING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FABRICATION
GLASS
ILLUMINANCE
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
PERFORMANCE
REFLECTIVITY
SOLUBILITY
SPECTRAL RESPONSE
TIN OXIDES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION