Cargando…

Structural and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films and their application in solar cells

The performance improvement of conventional CdTe solar cells is mainly limited by doping concentration and minority carrier life time. Alloying CdTe with an isovalent element changes its properties, for example its band gap and behaviour of dopants, which has a significant impact on its performance...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lingg, Martina, Spescha, Annina, Haass, Stefan G., Carron, Romain, Buecheler, Stephan, Tiwari, Ayodhya N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6171450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30294395
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14686996.2018.1497403
_version_ 1783360794073759744
author Lingg, Martina
Spescha, Annina
Haass, Stefan G.
Carron, Romain
Buecheler, Stephan
Tiwari, Ayodhya N.
author_facet Lingg, Martina
Spescha, Annina
Haass, Stefan G.
Carron, Romain
Buecheler, Stephan
Tiwari, Ayodhya N.
author_sort Lingg, Martina
collection PubMed
description The performance improvement of conventional CdTe solar cells is mainly limited by doping concentration and minority carrier life time. Alloying CdTe with an isovalent element changes its properties, for example its band gap and behaviour of dopants, which has a significant impact on its performance as a solar cell absorber. In this work, the structural, optical, and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films are examined for different Se concentrations. The band gap of this compound changes with composition with a minimum of 1.40 eV for x = 0.3. We show that with increasing x, the lattice constant of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) decreases, which can influence the solubility of dopants. We find that alloying CdTe with Se changes the effect of Cu doping on the p-type conductivity in CdTe(1-x)Se(x), reducing the achievable charge carrier concentration with increasing x. Using a front surface CdTe(1-x)Se(x) layer, compositional, structural and electronic grading is introduced to solar cells. The efficiency is increased, mostly due to an increase in the short-circuit current density caused by a combination of lower band gap and a better interface between the absorber and window layer, despite a loss in the open-circuit voltage caused by the lower band gap and reduced charge carrier concentration.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6171450
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher Taylor & Francis
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-61714502018-10-05 Structural and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films and their application in solar cells Lingg, Martina Spescha, Annina Haass, Stefan G. Carron, Romain Buecheler, Stephan Tiwari, Ayodhya N. Sci Technol Adv Mater Energy Materials The performance improvement of conventional CdTe solar cells is mainly limited by doping concentration and minority carrier life time. Alloying CdTe with an isovalent element changes its properties, for example its band gap and behaviour of dopants, which has a significant impact on its performance as a solar cell absorber. In this work, the structural, optical, and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films are examined for different Se concentrations. The band gap of this compound changes with composition with a minimum of 1.40 eV for x = 0.3. We show that with increasing x, the lattice constant of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) decreases, which can influence the solubility of dopants. We find that alloying CdTe with Se changes the effect of Cu doping on the p-type conductivity in CdTe(1-x)Se(x), reducing the achievable charge carrier concentration with increasing x. Using a front surface CdTe(1-x)Se(x) layer, compositional, structural and electronic grading is introduced to solar cells. The efficiency is increased, mostly due to an increase in the short-circuit current density caused by a combination of lower band gap and a better interface between the absorber and window layer, despite a loss in the open-circuit voltage caused by the lower band gap and reduced charge carrier concentration. Taylor & Francis 2018-10-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6171450/ /pubmed/30294395 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14686996.2018.1497403 Text en © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Energy Materials
Lingg, Martina
Spescha, Annina
Haass, Stefan G.
Carron, Romain
Buecheler, Stephan
Tiwari, Ayodhya N.
Structural and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films and their application in solar cells
title Structural and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films and their application in solar cells
title_full Structural and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films and their application in solar cells
title_fullStr Structural and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films and their application in solar cells
title_full_unstemmed Structural and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films and their application in solar cells
title_short Structural and electronic properties of CdTe(1-x)Se(x) films and their application in solar cells
title_sort structural and electronic properties of cdte(1-x)se(x) films and their application in solar cells
topic Energy Materials
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6171450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30294395
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14686996.2018.1497403
work_keys_str_mv AT linggmartina structuralandelectronicpropertiesofcdte1xsexfilmsandtheirapplicationinsolarcells
AT speschaannina structuralandelectronicpropertiesofcdte1xsexfilmsandtheirapplicationinsolarcells
AT haassstefang structuralandelectronicpropertiesofcdte1xsexfilmsandtheirapplicationinsolarcells
AT carronromain structuralandelectronicpropertiesofcdte1xsexfilmsandtheirapplicationinsolarcells
AT buechelerstephan structuralandelectronicpropertiesofcdte1xsexfilmsandtheirapplicationinsolarcells
AT tiwariayodhyan structuralandelectronicpropertiesofcdte1xsexfilmsandtheirapplicationinsolarcells