Activation of thin film CdTe solar cells using a cadmium bromide treatment
2019-03-18T14:35:18Z (GMT)
by
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.