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Effect of CdTe thickness reduction in high efficiency CdS/CdTe solar cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

Akhlesh Gupta ,
I. Matulionis ,
J. Drayton  and
A.D. Compaan
Akhlesh Gupta
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, −Univ. of Toledo, Toledo, OH. 43606
I. Matulionis
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, −Univ. of Toledo, Toledo, OH. 43606
J. Drayton
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, −Univ. of Toledo, Toledo, OH. 43606
A.D. Compaan
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, −Univ. of Toledo, Toledo, OH. 43606
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Abstract

High efficiency CdTe solar cells are typically grown with CdTe thicknesses from 3 to 15 μm, although the thickness required for 90% absorption of the incident irradiation at 800 nm is only ∼1 μm. In this paper, we present the effect of CdTe thickness reduction on the performance of CdS/CdTe solar cells in which both the CdS and CdTe films were grown by sputtering. We produced a series of cells with different CdTe thickness (from 0.5 to 3.0 μm), and held the CdS thickness and back-contact-processing constant. The effect of CdTe thickness reduction on the diffusion of CdS into CdTe was studied using optical absorption and x-ray diffraction techniques. Only slight decreases occur in open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and fill factor with decrease in CdTe film thickness to 1.0 μm. Almost 10% efficient cells were obtained with 1 μm CdTe. Below 1 μm, all cell parameters decrease more rapidly, including the red quantum efficiency.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 668: Symposium H – II-IV Compound Semiconductor Photovoltaic Materials , 2001 , H6.4
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

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References

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