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Farrell J, Bastola E, Jamarkattel M, Heben M, Sampath WS, Sites J, Klie RF. Characterizing TeO2 Formation in CdTe Devices Using Transmission Electron Microscopy. Microsc Microanal 2023; 29:1661-1662. [PMID: 37613957 DOI: 10.1093/micmic/ozad067.855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/25/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- John Farrell
- University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | | | | | | | | | - James Sites
- Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | - Robert F Klie
- University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
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Bista SS, Li DB, Awni RA, Song Z, Subedi KK, Shrestha N, Rijal S, Neupane S, Grice CR, Phillips AB, Ellingson RJ, Heben M, Li JV, Yan Y. Effects of Cu Precursor on the Performance of Efficient CdTe Solar Cells. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021; 13:38432-38440. [PMID: 34347421 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c11784] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Copper (Cu) incorporation is a key process for fabricating efficient CdTe-based thin-film solar cells and has been used in CdTe-based solar cell module manufacturing. Here, we investigate the effects of different Cu precursors on the performance of CdTe-based thin-film solar cells by incorporating Cu using a metallic Cu source (evaporated Cu) and ionic Cu sources (solution-processed cuprous chloride (CuCl) and copper chloride (CuCl2)). We find that ionic Cu precursors offer much better control in Cu diffusion than the metallic Cu precursor, producing better front junction quality, lower back-barrier heights, and better bulk defect property. Finally, outperforming power conversion efficiencies of 17.2 and 17.5% are obtained for devices with cadmium sulfide and zinc magnesium oxide as the front window layers, respectively, which are among the highest reported CdTe solar cells efficiencies. Our results suggest that an ionic Cu precursor is preferred as the dopant to fabricate efficient CdTe thin-film solar cells and modules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandip S Bista
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Deng-Bing Li
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Rasha A Awni
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Zhaoning Song
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Kamala K Subedi
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Niraj Shrestha
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Suman Rijal
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Sabin Neupane
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Corey R Grice
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Adam B Phillips
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Randy J Ellingson
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Michael Heben
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
| | - Jian V Li
- Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, 70101 Tainan, Taiwan
| | - Yanfa Yan
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, United States
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