Effect of surface treatment on an n-CdSe{sub 0.6}Te{sub 0.4} thin-film photoanode/polysulphide electrolyte solar cell
- Thin Film Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute Technology, Madras, Madras 600 036 (India)
Polycrystalline thin films of n-CdSe{sub 0.6}Te{sub 0.4} were deposited in a vacuum of 5{times}10{sup {minus}5} Torr by thermal flash evaporation with a deposition rate of 20{plus_minus}1 {Angstrom}/s on indium oxide coated glass plates [{sigma}=1.25{times}10{sup 4} ({Omega}cm){sup {minus}1}] held at 200{degree}C. Application of surface treatment techniques such as annealing and photoelectrochemical etching on the films revealed that the films exhibit photoelectrochemical behavior with increased conversion efficiency and stability after treatment. G{umlt a}rtner{close_quote}s model [Phys. Rev. {bold 116}, 84 (1954)] was used in the calculation of the solid state parameters of the films like the carrier concentration N{sub D} and minority carrier diffusion length L{sub p} for different surface treatments. Chemical etching improves the efficiency and fill factor from 1.53{percent} and 40{percent} to 2.72{percent} and 50{percent} respectively, whereas photoelectrochemical etching improves further the efficiency to 3.83{percent} and fill factor to 59{percent} and the stability of the photoelectrode in the polysulphide electrolyte. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 450244
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 81, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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