The Impact of Cu on Recombination in High Voltage CdTe Solar Cells

Darius Kuciauskas; Patricia Dippo; Wyatt Metzger; Zhibo Zhao; Long Cheng; Andrei Los; Markus Gloeckler; Ana Kanevce

doi:10.1063/1.4938127

The Impact of Cu on Recombination in High Voltage CdTe Solar Cells

Darius Kuciauskas, Patricia Dippo, Wyatt Metzger, Zhibo Zhao, Long Cheng, Andrei Los, Markus Gloeckler, Ana Kanevce

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Abstract

Using photoluminescence spectroscopy, we construct a recombination model for state-of-the-art CdTe solar cells doped with Cu. We observe that Cu on Cd sites form a dominant acceptor state about 150 meV from the valence band. Although it is intuitive that this state can increase hole density, we also find that this relatively shallow dopant can also limit lifetime. Consequently, CdTe solar cells doped with Cu could have a lifetime limitation inversely proportional to the hole concentration.

Original language	American English
Article number	Article No. 243906
Number of pages	5
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	107
Issue number	24
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4938127 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4938127
State	Published - 14 Dec 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

NREL Publication Number

NREL/JA-5900-65705

Keywords

doping
electron densities of states
III-VI semiconductors
photoluminescence
solar cells

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title = "The Impact of Cu on Recombination in High Voltage CdTe Solar Cells",

abstract = "Using photoluminescence spectroscopy, we construct a recombination model for state-of-the-art CdTe solar cells doped with Cu. We observe that Cu on Cd sites form a dominant acceptor state about 150 meV from the valence band. Although it is intuitive that this state can increase hole density, we also find that this relatively shallow dopant can also limit lifetime. Consequently, CdTe solar cells doped with Cu could have a lifetime limitation inversely proportional to the hole concentration.",

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author = "Darius Kuciauskas and Patricia Dippo and Wyatt Metzger and Zhibo Zhao and Long Cheng and Andrei Los and Markus Gloeckler and Ana Kanevce",

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AU - Kuciauskas, Darius

AU - Dippo, Patricia

AU - Metzger, Wyatt

AU - Zhao, Zhibo

AU - Cheng, Long

AU - Los, Andrei

AU - Gloeckler, Markus

AU - Kanevce, Ana

PY - 2015/12/14

Y1 - 2015/12/14

N2 - Using photoluminescence spectroscopy, we construct a recombination model for state-of-the-art CdTe solar cells doped with Cu. We observe that Cu on Cd sites form a dominant acceptor state about 150 meV from the valence band. Although it is intuitive that this state can increase hole density, we also find that this relatively shallow dopant can also limit lifetime. Consequently, CdTe solar cells doped with Cu could have a lifetime limitation inversely proportional to the hole concentration.

AB - Using photoluminescence spectroscopy, we construct a recombination model for state-of-the-art CdTe solar cells doped with Cu. We observe that Cu on Cd sites form a dominant acceptor state about 150 meV from the valence band. Although it is intuitive that this state can increase hole density, we also find that this relatively shallow dopant can also limit lifetime. Consequently, CdTe solar cells doped with Cu could have a lifetime limitation inversely proportional to the hole concentration.

KW - doping

KW - electron densities of states

KW - III-VI semiconductors

KW - photoluminescence

KW - solar cells

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U2 - 10.1063/1.4938127

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VL - 107

JO - Applied Physics Letters

JF - Applied Physics Letters

IS - 24

M1 - Article No. 243906

ER -

The Impact of Cu on Recombination in High Voltage CdTe Solar Cells

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

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