Buffer/absorber interface recombination reduction and improvement of back-contact barrier height in CdTe solar cells

Paul, Sanjoy; Swartz, C. H.; Sohal, Sandeep; Grice, Corey R.; Bista, Sandip S.; Li, Deng‐Bing; Yan, Yanfa; Holtz, M.; Li, Jian V.

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2019.06.058

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Besides, recent research has shifted to replacing the traditional CdS window layer. MgxZn1−xO (MZO) is a promising alternative window layer material that has a higher bandgap and has contributed to >18% laboratory cell efficiencies [7,8]. Cadmium selenide (CdSe) is another option.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of CdCl2 Treatment in CdTe Thin Film Grown on Ultra-Thin Glass Substrate via Close Spaced Sublimation

2021

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In this study, close-spaced sublimation (CSS) grown cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films with good adhesion to 100 µm thin Schott D263T ultra-thin glass (UTG) were investigated. Cadmium chloride (CdCl2) treatment in vacuum ambient was executed to enhance the film quality and optoelectrical properties of CdTe thin film. The post-deposition annealing temperature ranging from 360–420 °C was examined to improve the CdTe film quality on UTG substrate. Various characterization techniques have been used to observe the compositional, morphological, optical, as well as electrical properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) verified that the CdTe morphology and grain size could be controlled via CdCl2 treatment temperature. Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX) results confirmed that the annealing temperature range of 375–390 °C yielded the stoichiometric CdTe films. UV-Vis analysis estimated the post-treatment bandgap energy in the range of 1.39–1.46 eV. Carrier concentration and resistivity were obtained in the order of 1013 cm−3 and 104 Ω-cm, respectively. All the experimental results established that the CdCl2 treatment temperature range of 390–405 °C might be considered as the optimum process temperature for the deposition of CdTe solar cell on UTG substrate in close-spaced sublimation (CSS) method.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of CdCl2 Treatment in CdTe Thin Film Grown on Ultra-Thin Glass Substrate via Close Spaced Sublimation

2021

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“…The results show that incorporating Cu:NiO x into the PSC device improves its J-V behavior, giving a large area under the curve. The increase in the open-circuit voltage (V oc ) of the device with 0.1 M Cu:NiO x /PEDOT:PSS could result from the reduction in the potential loss at the HTL/perovskite interface due to the improved energy-level alignment, as shown by Paul et al [39,40] and Li et al [41] who adopted the band-bending technique to eliminate recombination at the interfaces of cadmium telluride (CdTe), thin-films and copper-indiumgallium-selenide (Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 ) solar cells with low and high gallium (Ga) compositions. The improved J sc of the Cu:NiO x /PEDOT:PSS could be attributed to the increase in the electrical conductivity of the Cu:NiO x , which provides room for more charges to be extracted from the perovskite absorber layer.…”

Section: Performance Of Fabricated Perovskite Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…This results in a PEDOT:PSS/Cu:NiOx hole transport layer, enhancing hole collection and transport efficiency [7,31,[35][36][37][38]. Therefore, interface recombination is prevented [39][40][41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Hybrid Hole Transport Layer for Perovskite-Based Solar Cells

et al. 2021

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This paper presents the effect of a composite poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate PEDOT:PSS and copper-doped nickel oxide (Cu:NiOx) hole transport layer (HTL) on the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Thin films of Cu:NiOx were spin-coated onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates using a blend of nickel acetate tetrahydrate, 2-methoxyethanol and monoethanolamine (MEA) and copper acetate monohydrate. The prepared solution was stirred at 65 °C for 4 h and spin-coated onto the FTO substrates at 3000 rpm for 30 s in a nitrogen glovebox. The Cu:NiOx/FTO/glass structure was then annealed in air at 400 °C for 30 min. A mixture of PEDOT:PSS and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) (in 1:0.05 wt%) was spun onto the Cu:NiOx/FTO/glass substrate at 4000 rpm for 60 s. The multilayer structure was annealed at 130 °C for 15 min. Subsequently, the perovskite precursor (0.95 M) of methylammonium iodide (MAI) to lead acetate trihydrate (Pb(OAc)2·3H2O) was spin-coated at 4000 rpm for 200 s and thermally annealed at 80 °C for 12 min. The inverted planar perovskite solar cells were then fabricated by the deposition of a photoactive layer (CH3NH3PbI3), [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), and a Ag electrode. The mechanical behavior of the device during the fabrication of the Cu:NiOx HTL was modeled with finite element simulations using Abaqus/Complete Abaqus Environment CAE. The results show that incorporating Cu:NiOx into the PSC device improves its density–voltage (J–V) behavior, giving an enhanced photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of ~12.8% from ~9.8% and ~11.5% when PEDOT:PSS-only and Cu:NiOx-only are fabricated, respectively. The short circuit current density Jsc for the 0.1 M Cu:NiOx and 0.2 M Cu:NiOx-based devices increased by 18% and 9%, respectively, due to the increase in the electrical conductivity of the Cu:NiOx which provides room for more charges to be extracted out of the absorber layer. The increases in the PCEs were due to the copper-doped nickel oxide blend with the PEDOT:PSS which enhanced the exciton density and charge transport efficiency leading to higher electrical conductivity. The results indicate that the devices with the copper-doped nickel oxide hole transport layer (HTL) are slower to degrade compared with the PEDOT:PSS-only-based HTL. The finite element analyses show that the Cu:NiOx layer would not extensively deform the device, leading to improved stability and enhanced performance. The implications of the results are discussed for the design of low-temperature solution-processed PSCs with copper-doped nickel oxide composite HTLs.

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“…[ 31 ] This small negative spike reduces the interface recombination between absorber/HTL layer because activation energy ( E a ) at the junction interface is equal to or nearly equal to the bandgap ( E g ) of the absorber layer, due to which bulk recombination mechanism is more dominant than interface recombination in this proposed CdTe design. [ 32,33 ] So, numerical analysis of this structure could be helpful for the development of CdTe photovoltaic cell.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of Electrical Parameters of CdTe Photovoltaic Devices by Computational Analysis

Singh

Agarwal

Kanumuri

2021

Physica Status Solidi (a)

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This article discusses the numerical analysis of heterojunction photovoltaic cells based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) using the SCAPS‐1D software. A novel glass/FTO/SnO2/CdS/interdiffusion/CdTe/SnS2/Se photovoltaic cell design is proposed for investigation. Additionally, the effect of thickness variation in the p‐type CdTe film, thickness variation in the interdiffusion layer, defect density in the CdTe film, defect density in the interdiffusion layer, and acceptor concentration in the CdTe layer is studied in order to improve the photovoltaic cell's efficiency. The study determines an optimal thickness of 1 and 0.6 μm for the CdTe and interdiffusion layers, respectively, a defect density of 1 × 1014 cm−3 for the CdTe film and interdiffusion region, an interface defect density of 1 × 1010 cm−3 between CdTe/interdiffusion, SnS2/CdTe, and CdS/interdiffusion, and an acceptor concentration value of 8.5 × 1015 cm−3. The optimized CdTe photovoltaic cell structure with current density (Jsc) = 30.003 mA cm−2, open‐circuit voltage (Voc) = 1.061 V, and fill factor (FF) = 88.10% achieves a 28.07% efficiency, compared to the baseline CdTe photovoltaic cell structure with a 23.01% efficiency.

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Buffer/absorber interface recombination reduction and improvement of back-contact barrier height in CdTe solar cells

Cited by 16 publications

References 36 publications

Impact of CdCl2 Treatment in CdTe Thin Film Grown on Ultra-Thin Glass Substrate via Close Spaced Sublimation

Impact of CdCl2 Treatment in CdTe Thin Film Grown on Ultra-Thin Glass Substrate via Close Spaced Sublimation

A Hybrid Hole Transport Layer for Perovskite-Based Solar Cells

Investigation of Electrical Parameters of CdTe Photovoltaic Devices by Computational Analysis

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