Effects of back-contacting method and temperature on CdTe/CdS solar cells

Author

Duenow, Joel N. ; Dhere, Ramesh G. ; Li, Jian V. ; Young, Matthew R. ; Gessert, Timothy A.

Author_Institution

Nat. Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

20-25 June 2010

Abstract

In this study, we use three common types of back contacts to CdTe-a ZnTe:Cu back-contact interface layer, a Cu/Au bilayer, and HgTe:Cu-doped graphite paste-to enable us to gain greater understanding of how back-contact processing affects the entire CdTe/CdS device. Current density-voltage (J-V) and quantum efficiency (QE) measurements are used to examine device performance and carrier collection. Variations in the CdTe net acceptor density are examined using capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. Temperature-dependent current density-voltage (JVT) characterization is used to investigate the back-contact barrier height. These methods enhance our understanding of contacts to CdTe and the effects of these contacts on CdTe photovoltaic devices.

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; cadmium compounds; capacitance measurement; copper; current density; gold; graphite; mercury compounds; semiconductor doping; solar cells; voltage measurement; wide band gap semiconductors; zinc compounds; CdTe-CdS; CdTe-ZnTe:Cu; Cu-Au; HgTe:Cu,C; acceptor density; back-contact barrier height; back-contact interface layer; capacitance-voltage measurement; current density-voltage measurement; graphite paste; photovoltaic device; quantum efficiency measurement; solar cell; temperature-dependent current density-voltage characterization; Annealing; Capacitance-voltage characteristics; Copper; Current measurement; Gold; Performance evaluation; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2010 35th IEEE

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5890-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2010.5614593

Filename

5614593