Title :
The effect of SnO2 roughness on the properties of CdTe/CdS solar cells
Author :
Ferekides, C. ; Poorsala, U. ; Morel, D.L.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
fDate :
29 Sep-3 Oct 1997
Abstract :
Tin oxide is the most commonly used transparent conducting oxide for CdTe solar cells. Its properties are critical to solar cell performance, in particular when CdS films of small thicknesses are utilized. Using thin CdS films to enhance the photocurrent of CdTe solar cells typically leads to lower Vocs and fill factors. This is believed to be due to the presence of pinholes in CdS which lead to the direct contact of the CdTe layer with SnO2. The main objective of this work is to study the effect of the roughness/grain size of the SnO2 films on the performance of CdTe solar cells. It has been found that as the roughness/grain size of the SnO2 increases, the performance of CdTe cells fabricated using thin CdS films improves
Keywords :
CVD coatings; II-VI semiconductors; cadmium compounds; chemical vapour deposition; grain size; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor thin films; solar cells; surface topography; tin compounds; CdTe-CdS; CdTe/CdS solar cells; PV performance improvement; SnO2; SnO2 films; fill factors; grain size; open circuit voltage; photocurrent enhancement; roughness; solar cell performance; transparent conducting oxide; Absorption; Atomic force microscopy; Fabrication; Grain size; Photoconductivity; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Substrates; Temperature; Tin;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1997., Conference Record of the Twenty-Sixth IEEE
Conference_Location :
Anaheim, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3767-0
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1997.654119
