Overcoming Carrier Concentration Limits in Polycrystalline CdTe Thin Films with In Situ Doping

Brian E. McCandless; Wayne A. Buchanan; Christopher P. Thompson; Gowri Sriramagiri; Robert J. Lovelett; Joel Duenow; David Albin; Søren Jensen; Eric Colegrove; John Moseley; Helio Moutinho; Steve Harvey; Mowafak Al-Jassim; Wyatt K. Metzger

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-32746-y

Overcoming Carrier Concentration Limits in Polycrystalline CdTe Thin Films with In Situ Doping

Brian E. McCandless, Wayne A. Buchanan, Christopher P. Thompson, Gowri Sriramagiri, Robert J. Lovelett, Joel Duenow, David Albin, Søren Jensen, Eric Colegrove, John Moseley, Helio Moutinho, Steve Harvey, Mowafak Al-Jassim, Wyatt K. Metzger

Materials Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

94 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Thin film materials for photovoltaics such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper-indium diselenide-based chalcopyrites (CIGS), and lead iodide-based perovskites offer the potential of lower solar module capital costs and improved performance to microcrystalline silicon. However, for decades understanding and controlling hole and electron concentration in these polycrystalline films has been extremely challenging and limiting. Ionic bonding between constituent atoms often leads to tenacious intrinsic compensating defect chemistries that are difficult to control. Device modeling indicates that increasing CdTe hole density while retaining carrier lifetimes of several nanoseconds can increase solar cell efficiency to 25%. This paper describes in-situ Sb, As, and P doping and post-growth annealing that increases hole density from historic 10¹⁴ limits to 10¹⁶–10¹⁷ cm⁻³ levels without compromising lifetime in thin polycrystalline CdTe films, which opens paths to advance solar performance and achieve costs below conventional electricity sources.

Original language	American English
Article number	Article No. 14519
Number of pages	13
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	8
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32746-y https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32746-y
State	Published - 1 Dec 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).

NREL Publication Number

NREL/JA-5K00-72611

Keywords

semiconductors
solar cells
solar performance
thin films

Access to Document

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy18osti/72611.pdf

Cite this

McCandless, B. E., Buchanan, W. A., Thompson, C. P., Sriramagiri, G., Lovelett, R. J., Duenow, J., Albin, D., Jensen, S., Colegrove, E., Moseley, J., Moutinho, H., Harvey, S., Al-Jassim, M., & Metzger, W. K. (2018). Overcoming Carrier Concentration Limits in Polycrystalline CdTe Thin Films with In Situ Doping. Scientific Reports, 8(1), Article Article No. 14519. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32746-y, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32746-y

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abstract = "Thin film materials for photovoltaics such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper-indium diselenide-based chalcopyrites (CIGS), and lead iodide-based perovskites offer the potential of lower solar module capital costs and improved performance to microcrystalline silicon. However, for decades understanding and controlling hole and electron concentration in these polycrystalline films has been extremely challenging and limiting. Ionic bonding between constituent atoms often leads to tenacious intrinsic compensating defect chemistries that are difficult to control. Device modeling indicates that increasing CdTe hole density while retaining carrier lifetimes of several nanoseconds can increase solar cell efficiency to 25%. This paper describes in-situ Sb, As, and P doping and post-growth annealing that increases hole density from historic 1014 limits to 1016–1017 cm−3 levels without compromising lifetime in thin polycrystalline CdTe films, which opens paths to advance solar performance and achieve costs below conventional electricity sources.",

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McCandless, BE, Buchanan, WA, Thompson, CP, Sriramagiri, G, Lovelett, RJ, Duenow, J, Albin, D, Jensen, S, Colegrove, E, Moseley, J, Moutinho, H, Harvey, S , Al-Jassim, M & Metzger, WK 2018, 'Overcoming Carrier Concentration Limits in Polycrystalline CdTe Thin Films with In Situ Doping', Scientific Reports, vol. 8, no. 1, Article No. 14519. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32746-y, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32746-y

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AU - Duenow, Joel

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AU - Jensen, Søren

AU - Colegrove, Eric

AU - Moseley, John

AU - Moutinho, Helio

AU - Harvey, Steve

AU - Al-Jassim, Mowafak

AU - Metzger, Wyatt K.

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Overcoming Carrier Concentration Limits in Polycrystalline CdTe Thin Films with In Situ Doping

Abstract

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NREL Publication Number

Keywords

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