HCl vapor post-deposition heat treatment of CdTe/CdS films

Author

Qu, Y. ; Meyers, P.V. ; McCandless, B.E.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Energy Conversion, Delaware Univ., Newark, DE, USA

fYear

1996

fDate

13-17 May 1996

Firstpage

1013

Lastpage

1016

Abstract

Data on the structural and optical properties and solar cell performance of thermally evaporated CdTe/CdS films are presented as functions of the HCl concentration and temperature of a post-deposition heat treatment. The degree of preferred (111) orientation decreased while the grain size of the CdTe films increased with increasing HCl concentration and temperature. The sulfur content of a CdTe_1-xS_x layer also increased with HCl concentration and temperature to a maximum value of ~2%. Cell performance improved over as-deposited values to ~8% efficiency. Experimental difficulties associated with the use of hydrochloric acid and with oxygen in the anneal ambient are discussed

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; annealing; cadmium compounds; chlorine compounds; grain size; hydrogen compounds; optical properties; semiconductor thin films; solar cells; vapour deposited coatings; vapour deposition; 8 percent; CdTe-CdS; CdTe/CdS films; CdTe_1-xS_x layer; HCl; HCl concentration; HCl vapor post-deposition heat treatment; cell performance improvement; grain size increase; optical properties; oxygen; preferred (111) orientation; solar cell performance; structural properties; sulfur content; thermally evaporated CdTe/CdS films; Annealing; Argon; Coatings; Heat treatment; Human computer interaction; Humidity; Large-scale systems; Optical films; Surface treatment; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1996., Conference Record of the Twenty Fifth IEEE

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3166-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1996.564303

Filename

564303