scholarly journals Application of ALD-Al2O3 in CdS/CdTe Thin-Film Solar Cells

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanggen Zeng ◽  
Xia Hao ◽  
Shengqiang Ren ◽  
Lianghuan Feng ◽  
Qionghua Wang

The application of thinner cadmium sulfide (CdS) window layer is a feasible approach to improve the performance of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film solar cells. However, the reduction of compactness and continuity of thinner CdS always deteriorates the device performance. In this work, transparent Al2O3 films with different thicknesses, deposited by using atomic layer deposition (ALD), were utilized as buffer layers between the front electrode transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and CdS layers to solve this problem, and then, thin-film solar cells with a structure of TCO/Al2O3/CdS/CdTe/BC/Ni were fabricated. The characteristics of the ALD-Al2O3 films were studied by UV–visible transmittance spectrum, Raman spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The light and dark J–V performances of solar cells were also measured by specific instrumentations. The transmittance measurement conducted on the TCO/Al2O3 films verified that the transmittance of TCO/Al2O3 were comparable to that of single TCO layer, meaning that no extra absorption loss occurred when Al2O3 buffer layers were introduced into cells. Furthermore, due to the advantages of the ALD method, the ALD-Al2O3 buffer layers formed an extremely continuous and uniform coverage on the substrates to effectively fill and block the tiny leakage channels in CdS/CdTe polycrystalline films and improve the characteristics of the interface between TCO and CdS. However, as the thickness of alumina increased, the negative effects of cells were gradually exposed, especially the increase of the series resistance (Rs) and the more serious “roll-over” phenomenon. Finally, the cell conversion efficiency (η) of more than 13.0% accompanied by optimized uniformity performances was successfully achieved corresponding to the 10 nm thick ALD-Al2O3 thin film.

Author(s):  
Md. Sharafat Hossain ◽  
Nowshad Amin ◽  
M. M. Aliyu ◽  
M. A. Matin ◽  
M. K. Siddiki ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
Vol 75 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 185-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
K NAKAMURA ◽  
M GOTOH ◽  
T FUJIHARA ◽  
T TOYAMA ◽  
H OKAMOTO

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 149-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Fuchs ◽  
H.-J. Schimper ◽  
A. Klein ◽  
W. Jaegermann

1996 ◽  
Vol 426 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Konagai ◽  
Y. Ohtake ◽  
T. Okamoto

AbstractCu(InGa)Se2(CIGS) thin film absorbers were fabricated by a three-stage method using a coevaporation apparatus. As a Cd-free buffer layer, ZnSe, InxSe, GaxSey and ZnInxSey buffer layers have been deposited on the CIGS absorber continuously in the same apparatus. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) was employed as a growth technique for ZnSe. This technique offers a good thickness control as well as a good surface coverage. By irradiating with a solar simulator, all the solar cell parameters increased drastically for the first 50 minutes of the irradiation and then saturated at longer irradiation times. This phenomenon did not appear for the cells with a CdS buffer layer. The best efficiency of ZnO/ZnSe/CIGS thin film solar cells with about 10 nm thick ZnSe buffer layer was 11.6%. On the other hand, ZnO/InxSey/CIGS thin film solar cells showed very stable characteristics under the light illumination, and initial measurements show an efficiency of 13.0%.


Solar Energy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 209 ◽  
pp. 515-537
Author(s):  
Soumyadeep Sinha ◽  
Dip K. Nandi ◽  
Pravin S. Pawar ◽  
Soo-Hyun Kim ◽  
Jaeyeong Heo

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