15% Efficiency CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells using CdS layers doped with metal organic compounds

For improving the photovoltaic performance of CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells, the CdS window layer is one of the most crucial factors. Here we demonstrate the photovoltaic performances of the low-environmental-load CdS/CdTe solar cell employing the CdS layer doped with various metal organic (MO) compounds, i.e., (CH3)2SnCl2, (C6H5)3GeCl, (CH3CO2)3In, [(C2H5)2NCS2]2Zn. Due to the MO doping, the degree of (1 1 1) preferential orientation of CdTe on the CdS layer is improved remarkably, influencing the increases in Voc and F.F. Being almost independent of the kind of the MO compounds, the short circuit current increases due to increasing optical transmittance of the MO-doped CdS layers. As a result, utilizing MO-doped CdS, we have achieved the conversion efficiency of 15.1%.