Abstract
High efficiency ultrathin CdTe film is an excellent candidate for reliable, efficient, stable and low cost solar cells. In this paper, a high efficiency CdS/CdTe solar cell has been studied by using ADEPT 1D simulation tool. The proposed device has been simulated with a reduced CdTe absorber layer thickness and a ZnTe layer as back surface field (BSF) which substantiates sensible energy conversion efficiency. The investigation into the simulation results showed that the conversion efficiency with BSF layer and 1 μm thick CdTe absorber is 8.24% more as compared to the conventional CdTe cells (without BSF layer). Reduction of minority carrier recombination loss due to the insertion of BSF layer at the back contact in ultra-thin CdS/CdTe cells has also been investigated. The results depict that CdTe cell with BSF layer is responsible for increasing the quantum efficiency. However, the proposed structure of ZnO/CdS/CdTe/ZnTe demonstrates the highest efficiency of 24.66% (Voc = 946.51 mV, Jsc = 34.40 mA/cm2 and FF = 75.72%) under global AM1.5G illumination spectra.
Highlights
Polycrystalline Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) is perceived as a very promising absorber layer material for highly efficient thin-film solar cells
ADEPT 1D simulation was employed to determine the appropriate thickness and bandgap of CdTe and ZnTe layer using the number of variable parameters
Simulation with default parameters demonstrated that the conversion efficiency was increased about 4.03% in comparison with the reference cell
Summary
Polycrystalline Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) is perceived as a very promising absorber layer material for highly efficient thin-film solar cells. It is an II–VI semiconductor used in the photoelectric devices for its high absorption coefficient > 5 × 105 cm−1 (Lee & Gray, 1993; Wu, 2004). The thickness required for an absorption layer of CdTe cells makes the cost of material relatively low. CdTe solar cell with total area efficiency of 16.5% has been obtained using chemical bath deposited (CBD) CdS buffer layer (Wu, 2004). The thickness optimization of CdTe absorption layer to around 1 μm shows potential increase in the efficiency and the insertion of higher bandgap materials (i.e. ZnTe) at the back contacts can reduce carrier recombination loss. Various strategies for improving efficiency are currently being considered with low-cost fabrication technologies
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