2015 IEEE PVSC paper.pdf (1.35 MB)
The effect of a post-activation annealing treatment on thin film CdTe device performance
conference contribution
posted on 2016-03-17, 13:21 authored by Ali AbbasAli Abbas, Drew E. Swanson, Amit Munshi, Kurt L. Barth, Walajabad S. Sampath, G.D. West, Jake BowersJake Bowers, Piotr Kaminski, Michael WallsMichael WallsThe cadmium chloride activation treatment of cadmium telluride solar cells is essential for producing high efficiency devices. The treatment has many effects but the most significant is the complete removal of stacking faults in the cadmium telluride grains and the diffusion of Chlorine along the grain boundaries of the device. Chlorine decorates all cadmium telluride and cadmium sulphide grain boundaries and also builds up along the CdTe/CdS junction. . This paper reveals that by annealing devices to temperatures of 400ºC to 480 ºC for times ranging from 30 to 600 seconds in moderate vacuum results in the re-appearance of stacking faults and the removal of Choline from the grain boundaries. STEM analysis confirms the re-appearance of the stacking faults and SIMS and EDX confirm the removal of chlorine from the grain boundaries. This directly corresponds to a lowering in cell efficiency. The study provides further evidence that CdCl2 diffusion and certain microstructural defects directly affect the performance of cadmium telluride photovoltaic devices.
Funding
The Loughborough authors are grateful to UKERC for financial assistance through the EPSRC Supergen SuperSolar Hub and the CSU authors to the NSF I/UCRC and AIR programs.
History
School
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Published in
2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), New Orleans, 14 Jun 2015 - 19 Jun 2015.Citation
ABBAS, A. ...et al., 2015. The effect of a post-activation annealing treatment on thin film CdTe device performance. Presented at the IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), New Orleans, 14-19 Jun 2015.Publisher
© IEEEVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2015Notes
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Language
- en