Combinatorial chemical bath deposition of CdS contacts for chalcogenide photovoltaics

Mokurala, Krishnaiah; Baranowski, Lauryn L.; de Souza Lucas, Francisco W.; Siol, Sebastian; van Hest, Maikel F. A. M.; Mallick, Sudhanshu; Bhargava, Parag; Zakutayev, Andriy

doi:10.1021/acscombsci.6b00074

Title: Combinatorial chemical bath deposition of CdS contacts for chalcogenide photovoltaics

Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · ACS Combinatorial Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acscombsci.6b00074· OSTI ID:1325071

Mokurala, Krishnaiah ^[1]; Baranowski, Lauryn L. ^[2]; de Souza Lucas, Francisco W. ^[3]; Siol, Sebastian ^[4]; van Hest, Maikel F. A. M. ^[4]; Mallick, Sudhanshu ^[5]; Bhargava, Parag ^[5]; Zakutayev, Andriy ^[4]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai (India)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Federal Univ. of Sao Carlos, Sao Carlos-SP (Brazil)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai (India)

Contact layers play an important role in thin film solar cells, but new material development and optimization of its thickness is usually a long and tedious process. A high-throughput experimental approach has been used to accelerate the rate of research in photovoltaic (PV) light absorbers and transparent conductive electrodes, however the combinatorial research on contact layers is less common. Here, we report on the chemical bath deposition (CBD) of CdS thin films by combinatorial dip coating technique and apply these contact layers to Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGSe) and Cu₂ZnSnSe₄ (CZTSe) light absorbers in PV devices. Combinatorial thickness steps of CdS thin films were achieved by removal of the substrate from the chemical bath, at regular intervals of time, and in equal distance increments. The trends in the photoconversion efficiency and in the spectral response of the PV devices as a function of thickness of CdS contacts were explained with the help of optical and morphological characterization of the CdS thin films. The maximum PV efficiency achieved for the combinatorial dip-coating CBD was similar to that for the PV devices processed using conventional CBD. Finally, the results of this study lead to the conclusion that combinatorial dip-coating can be used to accelerate the optimization of PV device performance of CdS and other candidate contact layers for a wide range of emerging absorbers.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1325071

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5K00-66839

Journal Information:: ACS Combinatorial Science, Vol. 18, Issue 9; ISSN 2156-8952

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 20 works

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Title: Combinatorial chemical bath deposition of CdS contacts for chalcogenide photovoltaics

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