Optimizing CdTe–metal interfaces for high performance solar cells

Li, Sibai; Peng, Zhi Gang; Zheng, Jiaxin; Pan, Feng

doi:10.1039/c7ta00698e

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Different barrier heights were obtained for the different surface terminations, and barrier heights were found to be heavily influenced by metal-induced gap states. Li et al (2017) 46 also studied Schottky barrier heights for Al, Ag, Au, Cu, and Ni. The lowest Schottky barriers determined were Ni (0.66 eV) and Au (0.44 eV).…”

Section: Metal Back Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review

Hall

Lamb

Irvine

2021

Energy Science & Engineering

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Section: Metal Back Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review

Hall

Lamb

Irvine

2021

Energy Science & Engineering

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“…Compared with Au, Ag features higher electrical and thermal conductivities at room temperature and exhibits high-density photo-generated electrons. However, Au is more stable and can integrate with CdTe better due to its lower Schottky barrier [21, 25,26], which results in higher carrier transmission and power conversion efficiency. Thus, AuAg alloy, which combines the best of both metals, is a good candidate for the plasmonic substrate.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of Terahertz Radiation by Surface Plasmons Based on CdTe Thin Films

Kong

Huang

et al. 2022

Nanomaterials

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Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) is a powerful tool used to characterize the surface/interface of materials, and semiconductor/metal interfaces can generate THz emission through ultrafast optical excitation, which can be further improved through the optical excitation of surface plasmons. Here, we assembled cadmium telluride (CdTe) on an AuAg alloy (Au25Ag75, wt.%) substrate and obtained five times stronger THz emission compared with silicon substrate, and found that the enhancement can be tuned by controlling the thickness of the semiconductor materials and plasmonic metal substrates. We believe that our results not only promote the development of THz emission enhancement, but also provide a straightforward way of producing small, thin, and more efficient terahertz photonic devices.

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“…Figure 1c,d display cross sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of CdTe films on Al and Ti pixel electrodes, respectively (pixel pattern device area = 20 × 20 mm 2 ). Those two metal electrodes are supposed to form Schottky junction with p-type CdTe because their work functions are similar each other (~4.2 eV) but quite smaller than that of p-type CdTe (~5 eV) 33 . However, Al has very different thermal expansion properties from CdTe’s, finally causing interface cracking during the CdTe growth at an elevated substrate temperature of 400 °C as a result shown in Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since all necessary constants for CdTe, Au, and Ti electrode are well known, we could clearly imagine energy band states under two different bias conditions as described in Fig. 3e : 0 volt bias and full depletion condition bias 33 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct Thermal Growth of Large Scale Cl-doped CdTe Film for Low Voltage High Resolution X-ray Image Sensor

Lee

Kim

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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Polycrystalline cadmium telluride (CdTe) X-ray photodetector with advanced performance was fabricated in a Schottky diode form by direct thermal deposition (evaporation) on pixelized complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) readout panel. Our CdTe X-ray detector shows such a variety of benefits as relatively low process temperature, low cost, low operation voltage less than 40 V, and higher sensitivity and spatial resolution than those of commercial a-Se detectors. CdTe has cubic Zinc Blende structure and maintains p-type conduction after growth in general. For low voltage operation, we succeeded in Cl doping at all stage of CdTe film deposition, and as a result, hole concentration of p-type CdTe was reduced to ~1012 cm−3 from ~1015 cm−3, and such concentration reduction could enable our Schottky diode with Ti electrode to operate at a reverse bias of less than 40 V. Our CdTe Schottky diode/CMOS pixel array as a direct conversion type imager demonstrates much higher resolution X-ray imaging in 7 × 9 cm2 large scale than that of CsI/CMOS array, an indirect conversion imager. To our limited knowledge, our results on polycrystalline CdTe Schottky diode/CMOS array would be very novel as a first demonstration of active pixel sensor system equipped with directly deposited large scale X-ray detector.

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Optimizing CdTe–metal interfaces for high performance solar cells

Abstract: CdTe is widely applied in thin film solar cells as a p-type layer, which is usually in contact with a metal back electrode.

Cited by 18 publications

References 42 publications

Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review

Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review

Enhancement of Terahertz Radiation by Surface Plasmons Based on CdTe Thin Films

Direct Thermal Growth of Large Scale Cl-doped CdTe Film for Low Voltage High Resolution X-ray Image Sensor

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