Comments

Copyright © 2012 Elsevier. All rights reserved. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Clayton, A.J., Irvine, S.J.C., Jones, E.W. Kartopu, G., Barrioz, V., and Brooks, W.S.M. (2012) “MOCVD of Cd(1-x)Zn(x)S/CdTe PV cells using an ultra-thin absorber layer”. Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, Volume 101 pp. 68-72. and is located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2012.02.018

Abstract

Ultra-thin Cd(₁ ₋ ₓ)Zn(ₓ)S/CdTe devices were produced by atmospheric pressure metal organic chemical vapour deposition (AP-MOCVD) with varying CdTe absorber thicknesses ranging from 1.0 to 0.2 mm and compared to baseline cells with total CdTe thickness of 2.25μ. The ultra-thin CdTe layers (≤1 μm) were intentionally doped with As to induce p-type conductivity in the absorber. Cell performance reduced with CdTe thickness, with the magnitude of photo-current generation loss becoming more significant for the very thin CdTe layers. The decline in cell performance was lower than the optically limited performance relating to a decrease in shunt resistance, Rsh, especially for the thinnest cells due to areas of incomplete CdTe coverage and large presence of pin-holes leading to micro-shorts. Incorporation of Zn into the CdS window layer improved cell performance for all devices except when 0.2 μm thick CdTe was used. This improvement was markedly in the blue region owing to enhanced optical transparency of the window layer. External quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements showed a red-shift of the window layer absorption edge due to leaching out of Zn during the CdCl₂ treatment. Reduction of the CdCl₂ deposition time was demonstrated to recover the blue response of the ultra-thin cells.

Disciplines

Analytical Chemistry | Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics | Chemical Engineering | Chemistry | Energy Systems | Engineering Physics | Inorganic Chemistry | Manufacturing | Materials Chemistry | Materials Science and Engineering | Mechanical Engineering | Other Chemical Engineering | Other Physics | Physical Chemistry | Physics | Semiconductor and Optical Materials | Structural Materials | Thermodynamics

Recommended Citation

Clayton, A.J., Irvine, S.J.C., Jones, E.W. Kartopu, G., Barrioz, V., and Brooks, W.S.M. (2012) “MOCVD of Cd(1-x)Zn(x)S/CdTe PV cells using an ultra-thin absorber layer”. Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, Volume 101 pp. 68-72.