High-Efficiency Polycrystalline CdTe Thin-Film Solar Cells with an Oxygenated Amorphous CdS (a-CdS:O) Window Layer: Preprint

In the conventional CdS/CdTe device structure, the poly-CdS window layer has a bandgap of ~2.4 eV, which causes absorption in the short-wavelength region. Higher short-circuit current densities (Jsc) can be achieved by reducing the CdS thickness, but this can adversely impact device open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF). Also, poly-CdS film has about 10% lattice mismatch related to the CdTe film, which limits the improvement of device Voc and FF. In this paper, we report a novel window material: oxygenated amorphous CdS film (a-CdS:O) prepared at room temperature by rf sputtering. The a-CdS:O film has a higher optical bandgap (2.5-3.1 eV) than the poly-CdS film and an amorphous structure. The preliminary device results have demonstrated that Jsc of the CdTe device can be greatly improved while maintaining higher Voc and FF. We have fabricated a CdTe cell demonstrating an NRELconfirmed Jsc of 25.85 mA/cm and a total-area efficiency of 15.4%.