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Abbas_Polycrystalline CdTe photovoltaics with efficiency over 18% through improved absorber passivation and current collection _SUBMISSION_READY.pdf (728.44 kB)

Polycrystalline CdTe photovoltaics with efficiency over 18% through improved absorber passivation and current collection

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posted on 2018-03-20, 12:30 authored by Amit Munshi, Jason M. Kephart, Ali AbbasAli Abbas, Tushar M. Shimpi, Kurt L. Barth, Michael WallsMichael Walls, Walajabad S. Sampath
© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Sublimated thin-film CdTe photovoltaic devices with conversion efficiencies over 18% and a fill-factor greater than 79% have been repeatedly obtained using high-rate fabrication processes on commercial soda-lime glass substrates used in CdTe modules. Four major improvements to the device have enabled an increase in efficiency from a baseline of approximately 12–18.7%: 1) A sputtered multilayer metal-oxide anti-reflection layer; 2) total replacement of the CdS window layer with a higher bandgap sputtered Mg x Zn 1−x O (MZO) window layer; 3) deposition of the CdTe layer at a higher thickness and substrate temperature; and 4) an evaporated tellurium back-contact. This work describes the effect of these changes on the device performance and film microstructural characteristics using various methods. Multiple devices with comparable high efficiency have been fabricated and demonstrated using methods described in this study, yielding very high efficiencies for CdTe polycrystalline thin-film photovoltaics using deposition processes and equipment in a university setting.

Funding

This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Collaborative Research Center (I/UCRC) under Award no. 1540007 and the National Science Foundation (NSF) PFI:AIR-RA program under Award no. 1538733. The authors at Loughborough University are grateful to RCUK for funding through the EPSRC Supergen SuperSolar Hub (EP/J017361/1).

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

Volume

176

Pages

9 - 18

Citation

MUNSHI, A. ... et al., 2018. Polycrystalline CdTe photovoltaics with efficiency over 18% through improved absorber passivation and current collection. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 176, pp. 9-18.

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-11-18

Publication date

2017-12-06

Notes

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2017.11.031

ISSN

0927-0248

Language

  • en

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