%0 Conference Paper %A Greenhalgh, Rachael %A Abbas, Ali %A Munshi, Amit %A Shimpi, Tushar M. %A Barth, Kurt L. %A Sampath, Walajabad S. %A Bowers, Jake %A Walls, Michael %D 2019 %T Activation of thin film CdTe solar cells using a cadmium bromide treatment %U https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/conference_contribution/Activation_of_thin_film_CdTe_solar_cells_using_a_cadmium_bromide_treatment/9557624 %2 https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/ndownloader/files/17189531 %K CdTe %K CdBr2 %K Activation %K TEM %K EQE %K EDX %K Mechanical Engineering not elsewhere classified %X The activation of CdTe with a cadmium chloride annealing treatment is a vital step in the fabrication of high efficiency solar cells. Thin film MZO/CdTe cells have been activated using CdBr2 instead of CdCl2 with a lower activation process temperature. Using this method, CdBr2 does activate the cell as revealed by J-V and EQE measurements. TEM and EDX elemental maps from device cross-sections confirm that bromine is present in the grain boundaries. TEM shows that the treatment removes stacking faults at 425 °C. CdBr2 treatment resulted in a relatively modest conversion efficiency of 5.49% when treated at 375 °C. Nevertheless, the experiments shed further light on the mechanisms involved in the activation. %I Loughborough University