Surfactant-Assisted Growth of CdS Thin Films for Photovoltaic Applications

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

    Abstract

    A common non-ionic surfactant, Triton X-100, was used to modify the chemical bath deposition (CBD) of CdS 'buffer' layers on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin films. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) data demonstrate that films produced with the surfactant have about the same levels of impurities as films grown without it. For thin,~130 ..ANG.. CdS layers andrelative to devices made without the surfactant, average absolute cell efficiencies were increased from 10.5% to 14.8%, or by a relative 41%. Visual inspection of the CdS depositions reveals one possible mechanism of the surfactant's effects: bubbles that form and adhere to the CIGS surface during the CBD reaction are almost completely eliminated with the addition of the TX-100. Thus, pinholesand thin areas in the CdS layers caused by poor wetting of the substrate surface are sharply reduced, leading to large increases in the open circuit voltage in devices produced with the surfactant.
    Original languageAmerican English
    Number of pages5
    StatePublished - 2005
    Event2005 DOE Solar Energy Technologies Program Review Meeting - Denver, Colorado
    Duration: 7 Nov 200510 Nov 2005

    Conference

    Conference2005 DOE Solar Energy Technologies Program Review Meeting
    CityDenver, Colorado
    Period7/11/0510/11/05

    Bibliographical note

    Presented at the 2005 DOE Solar Energy Technologies Program Review Meeting held November 7-10, 2005 in Denver, Colorado. Also included in the proceedings available on CD-ROM (DOE/GO-102006-2245; NREL/CD-520-38557)

    NREL Publication Number

    • NREL/CP-520-38941

    Keywords

    • CdS thin films
    • NREL
    • photovoltaics (PV)
    • PV
    • solar

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Surfactant-Assisted Growth of CdS Thin Films for Photovoltaic Applications'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this