Title :
Design of high performance CdS/CdTe solar cells by optimization of step doping and thickness of the CdTe absorption layer
Author :
Khosroabadi, Saeed ; Keshmiri, Seyyed-Hossein
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Ferdowsi Univ. of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract :
We have studied the effect of stepped doping of the absorber layer on performance of a single junction cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride (CdS/CdTe) solar cell. First, the electrical characteristics of an experimentally-fabricated single junction CdS/CdTe solar cell are studied. Next, a structure with optimized doping and thickness of the absorption layer is presented. It is found that step-doping concentration of the absorber layer can increase the conversion efficiency of the solar cell by about 1.77%. The effects of the fields due to the doping grading in the CdTe layer on important parameters of CdTe solar cells are also studied. It is shown that performance increases considerably with the increase in stepping gradient of the doping of CdTe layer. Under global AM 1.5 conditions, the optimized solar cell structure has an open-circuit voltage of 860 mV, a short-circuit current density of 25.68 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 81.8%, corresponding to a total area conversion efficiency of 18.07%.
Keywords :
II-VI semiconductors; absorption; cadmium compounds; current density; optimisation; semiconductor doping; short-circuit currents; solar cells; wide band gap semiconductors; CdS-CdTe; absorption layer; conversion efficiency; efficiency 18.07 percent; electrical characteristics; experimentally-fabricated single junction solar cell; fill factor; global AM 1.5 condition; open-circuit voltage; optimization; short-circuit current density; step-doping concentration; stepping gradient; voltage 860 mV; Absorption; Doping; Educational institutions; Films; Junctions; Optimization; Photovoltaic cells;
Conference_Titel :
Electrical Engineering (ICEE), 2013 21st Iranian Conference on
Conference_Location :
Mashhad
DOI :
10.1109/IranianCEE.2013.6599581