Indium phosphide/cadmium sulfide thin-film terrestrial solar cells. Final report, 1 September 1976-30 November 1978

Technical Report · Fri Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6143494

Zanio, K; Fraas, L

The planar reactive deposition (PRD) technique was developed as a practical low-temperature technique for depositing thin films of InP. Indium phosphide was epitaxially deposited onto InP and CdS single-crystal substrates in the 320 to 420/sup 0/C temperature range. Undoped films deposited on semi-insulating substrates are n-type with room-temperature mobilities as high as 4062 cm/sup 2//Vsec, corresponding to a residual active impurity concentration of a few times 10/sup 16/ cm/sup -3/. InP was also deposited onto polycrystalline thin films of CdS. Depletion of Cd from the thin films restricts the InP-on-CdS-on-glass all-thin-film solar cell concept to processing temperatures below 350/sup 0/C. The quality of the InP thin films made by our PRD process and their suitability as layers in thin-film solar cells was established by comparing CdS-on-InP solar cells made with our intermediate PRD InP layers with cells made only with commercial InP single-crystal substrates. To this effect, single-crystal CdS-on-InP cells were prepared by depositing CdS onto single crystals of commercial p-type InP (reference cells) and onto intermediate micrometer-thick layers of Be-doped p-type InP, the latter deposited earlier onto the commercial InP substrates over the 320 to 400/sup 0/C range by the PRD approach. The efficiency of the best reference cells and the best cells using the intermediate PRD thin films as the light-absorbing layer were both approximately 10% (air mass 2 illumination with no antireflection coating). Cell efficiency was not found to depend on the temperature of preparation of the intermediate single-crystal PRD layer.

• Research Organization: Hughes Research Labs., Malibu, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76ET20254
• OSTI ID: 6143494
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/20254-T1; ON: DE83009684
• 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
CARRIER MOBILITY
CHALCOGENIDES
CRYSTALS
DEPOSITION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
EPITAXY
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
FILMS
INDIUM COMPOUNDS
INDIUM PHOSPHIDE SOLAR CELLS
INDIUM PHOSPHIDES
INORGANIC PHOSPHORS
MOBILITY
MONOCRYSTALS
MORPHOLOGY
PHOSPHIDES
PHOSPHORS
PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PNICTIDES
POLYCRYSTALS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
THIN FILMS