Influence of the thermal treatments of CdS films on the opto-electronic properties of CdTe/CdS solar cells

In this work we present the effects of annealing of CdS thin films on the properties of CdTe/CdS devices. The chemical bath grown CdS thin films were annealed at different environments such as air, nitrogen, and oxygen. The electrical and opto-electronic parameters of the CdS films were measured. These CdS films were used as window layers in CdS/CdTe solar cells. The obtained results were correlated with the quantum efficiency spectra of the completed solar cells. CdTe/CdS photovoltaic devices were fabricated by depositing CdTe thin films using the CSS technique. We have performed the vapor cadmium chloride treatments of the CdTe films for all the heterojunctions. The back metal contact was an alloy of Cu and Au. The results of the I–V and quantum efficiency measurements are discussed.