Advances in Control of Doping and Lifetime in Single-Crystal and Polycrystalline CdTe

James Burst, David Albin, Joel Duenow, Stuart Farrell, Wyatt Metzger, Matthew Reese, Darius Kuciauskas

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

3 Scopus Citations

Abstract

We demonstrate the controlled alteration of bulk defects in CdTe single crystals and polycrystalline films to achieve high bulk minority-carrier lifetime and p-type doping. Low-temperature photoluminescence measurements confirm that bulk defect chemistry is altered by inserting intentional extrinsic dopants. Group I dopants such as copper display a tradeoff where increased doping decreases lifetime. By incorporating a Group V dopant source such as phosphorus, bulk lifetime values of 20-40 ns with acceptor density values of 0.7-1.0×1016 cm-3 are obtained in single and polycrystalline CdTe crystals. This exceptional combination of long lifetime and high p-type doping in a manufacturable material provides a path to increase open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and efficiency in CdTe photovoltaic devices.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages3258-3260
Number of pages3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Event40th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014 - Denver, United States
Duration: 8 Jun 201413 Jun 2014

Conference

Conference40th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDenver
Period8/06/1413/06/14

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-5K00-61197

Keywords

  • carrier lifetime
  • CdTe
  • doping
  • photovoltaic cells

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