Cadmium sulfide-copper sulfide heterojunction cell research. Quarterly report, June 1-August 31, 1981

Technical Report · Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5356242

Birkmire, R W; Hall, R B; Phillips, J E

The localization and elimination of shunting defects in Cu/sub 2/S/CdS cells is reported. Cells free of such defects are shown to be voltage stable under prolonged exposure at open-circuit voltage. An attempt to eliminate shunting defects by interposing an insulating layer between the CdS and the ohmic back contact is reported. Further development of an alternate cell design utilizing a transparent substrate is reported and practical difficulties in producing such cells are described. Production of large grain CdS substrates for use in detailed studies of the Cu/sub 2/S layer has been only partially successful. Zinc contents in Cd/sub 1-x/Zn/sub x/S higher than about 20% are necessary in order to further improve the open-circuit voltage and conversion efficiency of Cu/sub 2/S based cells. Growth results for such films utilizing both compound sources and a three element source system are described. The three element source system has now been calibrated for both zinc and cadmium. Inhomogeneities in Cd/sub 1-x/Zn/sub x/S silms produced from various compound source designs are discussed.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO (USA); Delaware Univ., Newark (USA). Inst. of Energy Conversion
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CH00178
• OSTI ID: 5356242
• Report Number(s): SERI/PR-8309-1-T7; ON: DE82008760
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
CADMIUM SULFIDE SOLAR CELLS
FABRICATION
STABILITY
COPPER SULFIDES
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DEFECTS
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
FILMS
GRAIN SIZE
HETEROJUNCTIONS
SUBSTRATES
ZINC SULFIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
COPPER COMPOUNDS
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EQUIPMENT
INORGANIC PHOSPHORS
JUNCTIONS
MICROSTRUCTURE
PHOSPHORS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SIZE
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
ZINC COMPOUNDS
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion