Recombination-induced voltage-dependent photocurrent collection loss in CdTe thin film solar cell

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ac728e

Abstract Recently, the efficiency of CdTe thin film solar cell has been improved by using new type of window layer Mg_xZn_1-xO (MZO). However, it is hard to achieve such a high efficiency as expected. In this report a comparative study is carried out between the MZO/CdTe and CdS/CdTe solar cells to investigate the factors affecting the device performance of MZO/CdTe solar cells. The efficiency loss quantified by voltage-dependent photocurrent collection efficiency (η_C(V')) is 3.89% for MZO/CdTe and 1.53% for CdS/CdTe solar cells. The higher efficiency loss for the MZO/CdTe solar cell is induced by more severe carrier recombination at the MZO/CdTe p—n junction interface and in CdTe bulk region than that for the CdS/CdTe solar cell. Activation energy (E_a) of the reverse saturation current of the MZO/CdTe and CdS/CdTe solar cells are found to be 1.08 eV and 1.36 eV, respectively. These values indicate that for the CdS/CdTe solar cell the carrier recombination is dominated by bulk Shockley—Read—Hall (SRH) recombination and for the MZO/CdTe solar cell the carrier recombination is dominated by the p—n junction interface recombination. It is found that the tunneling-enhanced interface recombination is also involved in carrier recombination in the MZO/CdTe solar cell. This work demonstrates the poor device performance of the MZO/CdTe solar cell is induced by more severe interface and bulk recombination than that of the CdS/CdTe solar cell.

Keywords: CdTe solar cell voltage-dependent photocurrent collection efficiency interface recombination bulk recombination

Received: 23 February 2022
Revised: 18 May 2022
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	88.40.jm	(Thin film III-V and II-VI based solar cells)
	88.40.hj	(Efficiency and performance of solar cells)
	73.50.Gr	(Charge carriers: generation, recombination, lifetime, trapping, mean free paths)
	88.40.H-	(Solar cells (photovoltaics))

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61774140 and 61474103).

Corresponding Authors: De-Liang Wang
E-mail: eedewang@ustc.edu.cn

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Ling-Ling Wu(吴玲玲), Guang-Wei Wang(王光伟), Juan Tian(田涓), Dong-Ming Wang(王东明), and De-Liang Wang(王德亮) Recombination-induced voltage-dependent photocurrent collection loss in CdTe thin film solar cell 2022 Chin. Phys. B 31 108803

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[1]	Deep level transient spectroscopy investigation of deep levels in CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells with Te:Cu back contact Wang Zhao(王钊), Li Bing(黎兵), Zheng Xu(郑旭), Xie Jing(谢婧), Huang Zheng(黄征), Liu Cai(刘才), Feng Liang-Huan(冯良桓), and Zheng Jia-Gui(郑家贵). Chin. Phys. B, 2010, 19(2): 027303.

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Recombination-induced voltage-dependent photocurrent collection loss in CdTe thin film solar cell

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