The Influence of Conduction Band Offset on CdTe Solar Cells

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2018

Abstract

Numerical modeling of conduction band offset (ΔEC) between an n-type CdSO window layer and a p-type CdTe absorption layer on the effect of the cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells was studied through simulation. The simulation results show that a slightly positive ΔEC yields high efficiency because the surface recombination rate at the CdSO/CdTe interface can be substantially reduced, leading to higher open-circuit voltage (VOC) and fill factor. Further increase in ΔEC (≥ 0.4 eV) will impose an energy barrier against the photo-generated electrons under forward bias. We demonstrated the mechanistic picture of this effect using thermionic emission. However, if intra-band tunneling is considered in the simulation, a large ΔEC shows negligible influence on the performance of CdTe solar cells. Our simulation results suggest that an ΔEC of 0.3 eV is an optimal conduction band offset for high-efficiency CdTe solar cells.

Identifier

85033488906 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Journal of Electronic Materials

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5850-9

ISSN

03615235

First Page

1201

Last Page

1207

Issue

2

Volume

47

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