Resetting the Defect Chemistry in CdTe

Wyatt Metzger, David Albin, Eric Colegrove, John Moseley, Joel Duenow, Stuart Farrell, Helio Moutinho, Matthew Reese, Steven Johnston, Teresa Barnes, Craig Perkins, Harvey Guthrey, Mowafak Al-Jassim, James Burst

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

5 Scopus Citations

Abstract

CdTe cell efficiencies have increased from 17% to 21% in the past three years and now rival polycrystalline Si [1]. Research is now targeting 25% to displace Si, attain costs less than 40 cents/W, and reach grid parity. Recent efficiency gains have come largely from greater photocurrent. There is still headroom to lower costs and improve performance by increasing open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor. Record-efficiency CdTe cells have been limited to Voc < 880 mV, whereas GaAs can attain Voc of 1.10 V with a slightly smaller bandgap [2,3]. To overcome this barrier, we seek to understand and increase lifetime and carrier concentration in CdTe. In polycrystalline structures, lifetime can be limited by interface and grain-boundary recombination, and attaining high carrier concentration is complicated by morphology.

Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages3
DOIs
StatePublished - 14 Dec 2015
Event42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015 - New Orleans, United States
Duration: 14 Jun 201519 Jun 2015

Conference

Conference42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNew Orleans
Period14/06/1519/06/15

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-5K00-63648

Keywords

  • cadmium compounds
  • carrier concentration CdTe
  • charge-carrier lifetime
  • photovoltaic cells
  • solar cells
  • tellurium
  • thin films

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