Cadmium sulfide/copper sulfide heterojunction cell research by sputter deposition. Final report, September 2, 1980-November 30, 1981

Technical Report · Tue Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5357295· OSTI ID:5357295

Thornton, J. A.; Anderson, W. W.; Meakin, J. D.

Extensive studies of the equilibration of wall and cathode surfaces in the reactive sputtering of Cu in Ar + H/sub 2/S atmospheres have provided guidelines for depositing Cu/sub x/S films with properties suitable for CdS/Cu/sub 2/S heterojunction fabrication. Hybrid cells which combine sputter-deposited Cu/sub 2/S with evaporated CdS and (CdZn)S have been fabricated. A CdS/Cu/sub 2/S cell with no antireflection coating has yielded a J/sub sc/ of 17.2 mA/cm/sup 2/ and an efficiency of 4.8% after heat treatment. A similar (CdZn)S/Cu/sub 2/S cell with an antireflection coating has yielded a J/sub sc/ of 18.5 mA/cm/sup 2/ and an efficiency of 7.2%. Significant progress has been made in fabricating all-sputtered cells with CdS layers deposited by planar magnetron reactive sputtering. Efficiencies of 3% or greater, without antireflection coatings, have been achieved for thirteen cells in their as-deposited state. Best individual cell parameters imply an efficiency of about 4.7%. Reflectance measurements indicate that 30% or more of the incident radiation is reflected from the front surface of the cells over the wavelength range of the solar spectrum. The conditions which maximize J/sub sc/, V/sub oc/, and FF do not appear to be mutually exclusive. Optimization of the cell parameters and the addition of a suitable AR coating should yield efficiencies in excess of 6%. The cells show that Cu/sub 2/S/CdS junctions equivalent to those formed by the topotaxial ion exchange method can be formed by sequential all-vacuum deposition of CdS and Cu/sub 2/S and that magnetron sputtering does not cause damage that compromises their electrical performance. An analysis is reported which examines the contribution of the spatially varying steady state majority carrier concentration to the frequency dispersion which is often observed in C-V junction measurements.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO (USA); TELIC Corp., Santa Monica, CA (USA); Lockheed Palo Alto Research Labs., CA (USA); Delaware Univ., Newark (USA). Inst. of Energy Conversion
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CH00178
• OSTI ID: 5357295
• Report Number(s): SERI/TR-9296-T3; ON: DE82012305
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
CADMIUM COMPOUNDS
CADMIUM SULFIDE SOLAR CELLS
CADMIUM SULFIDES
CAPACITANCE
CARRIER DENSITY
CHALCOGENIDES
COPPER COMPOUNDS
COPPER SULFIDE SOLAR CELLS
COPPER SULFIDES
CRYSTAL DOPING
CURRENT DENSITY
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELECTRON TUBES
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
HEAT TREATMENTS
HETEROJUNCTIONS
INORGANIC PHOSPHORS
JUNCTIONS
MAGNETRONS
MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT
MICROWAVE TUBES
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
OPTIMIZATION
PERFORMANCE
PHOSPHORS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
REFLECTIVITY
RELAXATION
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SPUTTERING
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS