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14% sputtered thin‐film solar cells based on CdTe
Author(s) -
Compaan A. D.,
Gupta A.,
Drayton J.,
Lee SH.,
Wang S.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.200304281
Subject(s) - cadmium telluride photovoltaics , sputtering , optoelectronics , tandem , materials science , sputter deposition , fabrication , semiconductor , solar cell , photovoltaic system , crystallite , thin film , nanotechnology , metallurgy , electrical engineering , engineering , composite material , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
Polycrystalline II–VI semiconductor materials show great promise for thin‐film photovoltaic cells and modules. Large‐area deposition of these II–VI semiconductors such as CdTe is possible by a variety of methods but the use of a plasma‐based method such as magnetron sputtering can have significant advantages. Here we present recent results in the fabrication of CdS/CdTe cells using rf magnetron sputtering and discuss some of the advantages that appear possible from the use of sputtering methods in this class of materials. Some of these advantages are particularly relevant as the polycrystalline thin‐film PV community addresses issues related to the challenges of fabricating high efficiency tandem cells with efficiencies over 25%. Our best results have been obtained with sputtered ZnO:Al to achieve a CdTe solar cell with 14.0% efficiency at one sun for an air‐mass‐1.5 global spectrum. In addition, we have studied reactive sputtering of ZnTe:N which shows promise for use as a transparent back contact or recombination junction for alloyed II–VI‐based top cells in a tandem solar‐cell configuration. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)