Choice of Substrate Material for Epitaxial CdTe Solar Cells

Ana Kanevce; Tao Song; James Sites

doi:10.1109/PVSC.2015.7355688

Choice of Substrate Material for Epitaxial CdTe Solar Cells

Ana Kanevce, Tao Song, James Sites

Materials Science

Colorado State University

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

3 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Epitaxial CdTe with high quality, low defect density, and high carrier concentration should in principle yield high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. However, insufficient effort has been given to explore the choice of substrate for high-efficiency epitaxial CdTe solar cells. In this paper, we use numerical simulations to investigate three crystalline substrates: silicon (Si), InSb, and CdTe itself. Potential problems, especially the non-ideal band alignment of Si and InSb substrates with a CdTe absorber, are found to be a limitation on cell performance. In addition, commercially available CdTe substrates have excessive series resistance leading to a FF loss, and Si has a significant lattice mismatch with CdTe, creating interfacial traps. Possible solutions to overcome the drawbacks of each substrate material are generally discussed.

Original language	American English
Number of pages	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7355688 https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7355688
State	Published - 2015
Event	42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015 - New Orleans, United States Duration: 14 Jun 2015 → 19 Jun 2015

Conference

Conference	42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
Country/Territory	United States
City	New Orleans
Period	14/06/15 → 19/06/15

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.

NREL Publication Number

NREL/CP-5J00-64397

Keywords

cadmium compounds
elemental semiconductors
epitaxial layers
II-VI semiconductors
indium compounds
silicon
solar cells

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title = "Choice of Substrate Material for Epitaxial CdTe Solar Cells",

abstract = "Epitaxial CdTe with high quality, low defect density, and high carrier concentration should in principle yield high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. However, insufficient effort has been given to explore the choice of substrate for high-efficiency epitaxial CdTe solar cells. In this paper, we use numerical simulations to investigate three crystalline substrates: silicon (Si), InSb, and CdTe itself. Potential problems, especially the non-ideal band alignment of Si and InSb substrates with a CdTe absorber, are found to be a limitation on cell performance. In addition, commercially available CdTe substrates have excessive series resistance leading to a FF loss, and Si has a significant lattice mismatch with CdTe, creating interfacial traps. Possible solutions to overcome the drawbacks of each substrate material are generally discussed.",

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author = "Ana Kanevce and Tao Song and James Sites",

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year = "2015",

doi = "10.1109/PVSC.2015.7355688",

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T1 - Choice of Substrate Material for Epitaxial CdTe Solar Cells

AU - Kanevce, Ana

AU - Song, Tao

AU - Sites, James

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

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AB - Epitaxial CdTe with high quality, low defect density, and high carrier concentration should in principle yield high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. However, insufficient effort has been given to explore the choice of substrate for high-efficiency epitaxial CdTe solar cells. In this paper, we use numerical simulations to investigate three crystalline substrates: silicon (Si), InSb, and CdTe itself. Potential problems, especially the non-ideal band alignment of Si and InSb substrates with a CdTe absorber, are found to be a limitation on cell performance. In addition, commercially available CdTe substrates have excessive series resistance leading to a FF loss, and Si has a significant lattice mismatch with CdTe, creating interfacial traps. Possible solutions to overcome the drawbacks of each substrate material are generally discussed.

KW - cadmium compounds

KW - elemental semiconductors

KW - epitaxial layers

KW - II-VI semiconductors

KW - indium compounds

KW - silicon

KW - solar cells

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DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2015.7355688

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T2 - 42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015

Y2 - 14 June 2015 through 19 June 2015

ER -

Choice of Substrate Material for Epitaxial CdTe Solar Cells

Abstract

Conference

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Keywords

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