A possible way to reduce absorber layer thickness in thin film CdTe solar cells

Krishnakumar, V.; Barati, Alireza; Schimper, H.-J.; Klein, Andreas; Jaegermann, Wolfram

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2012.11.085

Cited by 27 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In addition, the influence of film thickness on physical properties of polycrystalline CdTe thin films deposited on glass and indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates by thermal vacuum evaporation technique have been investigated [15]. Krishnakumar et al also have reported deposition of CdTe layer to reduce the CdTe thin film thickness below 1 lm using close spaced sublimation technique and substrate temperature changed [16]. Salavei et al also studied the physical and electrical properties of CdTe films deposited with different thicknesses by vacuum evaporation, and also investigated the effect of CdTe thickness on efficiency of CdTe solar cells [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of various deposition times and RF powers on CdTe thin film growth using magnetron sputtering

2016

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Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is a p-type II-VI compound semiconductor, which is an active component for producing photovoltaic solar cells in the form of thin films, due to its desirable physical properties. In this study, CdTe film was deposited using the radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering system onto a glass substrate. To improve the properties of the CdTe film, effects of two experimental parameters of deposition time and RF power were investigated on the physical properties of the CdTe films. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectrophotometer were used to study the structural, morphological and optical properties of the CdTe samples grown at different experimental conditions, respectively. Our results suggest that film properties strongly depend on the experimental parameters and by optimizing these parameters, it is possible to tune the desired structural, morphological and optical properties. From XRD data, it is found that increasing the deposition time and RF power leads to increasing the crystallinity as well as the crystal sizes of the grown film, and all the films represent zinc blende cubic structure. Roughness values given from AFM images suggest increasing the roughness of the CdTe films by increasing the RF power and deposition times. Finally, optical investigations reveal increasing the film band gaps by increasing the RF power and the deposition time.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of various deposition times and RF powers on CdTe thin film growth using magnetron sputtering

2016

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“…10 The research group of Prof. Jaegermann have proposed that the ultrathin films with deposited CdTe double layers in two different temperatures could obtain pinhole free and higher efficiencies. 11 The second thinnest CdTe layer deposited at a low temperature fills the grain boundaries of the first one and helps to avoid formation of pinholes and shunting. For 0.5 and 0.8 lm CdTe layer, the efficiencies of g = 5.2% and 9.5% were obtained still suffering from low open-circuit voltage, V oc = 0.42 and 0.56 V. The authors ignored preforming materials profiling (i.e., by SIMS); thus, the interlayer thickness is unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SCAPS Modeling for Degradation of Ultrathin CdTe Films: Materials Interdiffusion

Houshmand

Zandi

Gorji

2015

JOM

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Ultrathin film solar cells based on CdS/CdTe (d CdTe £ 1 lm) suffer from two main issues: incomplete photo absorption and high degradation rate. The former is cured by light-trapping techniques, whereas the latter is a matter of fabrication details. Interdiffusion of the material components and formation of subsequent interlayers at the front/back region can change the optical/electrical properties and performance/stability of the device. We model the degradation of the ultrathin CdTe film devices considering the material interdiffusion and interlayers formation: CdTeS, CdZnTe, Cu x Te (i.e., Te/Cu bilayer), and oxide interlayers (i.e., CdTeO 3 ). The diffusion rate of the materials is considered separately and the reactions that change the interlayer's properties are studied. Additionally, a back contact of single-walled carbon nanotube showed a higher stability than the metallic contacts. A new time-dependent approach is applied to simulate the degradation rate due to formation of any interlayer. It is shown that the materials interdiffusion causes a defect increment under thermal stress and illumination. The metallic back contact accelerates the degradation, whereas single-walled carbon nanotubes show the highest stability. A SCAPS simulator was used because of its ability in defining the properties of the back contact and metastabilities at the interface layers. The properties of the layers were taken from the experimental data reported in the literature.

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“…9 To avoid possible errors arising from a complicated highefficiency CdTe device structure, we used the standard layer stack (glass/TCO/CdS/CdTe) and preparation conditions which are well known to the CdTe community. Therefore, reference cell efficiency reported in this manuscript is limited.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simple Sb2Te3 Back-Contact Process for CdTe Solar Cells

Siepchen

Späth

Drost

et al. 2015

Journal of Elec Materi

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CdTe solar technology has proved to be a cost-efficient solution for energy production. Formation of the back contact is an important and critical step in preparing high-efficiency, stable CdTe solar cells. In this paper we report a simple CdTe solar cell (Sb 2 Te 3 ) back contact-formation process. The CdS and CdTe layers were deposited by close-space sublimation. After CdCl 2 annealing treatment, the CdTe surface was etched by use of a mixture of nitric and phosphoric acids to obtain a Te-rich surface. Elemental Sb was sputtered on the etched surface and successive post-annealing treatment induced Sb 2 Te 3 alloy formation. Structural characterization by x-ray diffraction analysis confirmed formation of the Sb 2 Te 3 phase. The performance of solar cells with nanoalloyed Sb 2 Te 3 back contacts was comparable with that of reference solar cells prepared with sputtered Sb 2 Te 3 back contact from a compound sputter target.

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A possible way to reduce absorber layer thickness in thin film CdTe solar cells

Cited by 27 publications

References 15 publications

Effects of various deposition times and RF powers on CdTe thin film growth using magnetron sputtering

Effects of various deposition times and RF powers on CdTe thin film growth using magnetron sputtering

SCAPS Modeling for Degradation of Ultrathin CdTe Films: Materials Interdiffusion

A Simple Sb2Te3 Back-Contact Process for CdTe Solar Cells

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