Cadmium Telluride Solar Cells on Ultrathin Glass for Space Applications

Irvine, Stuart, Lamb, Daniel, Clayton, Andrew, Kartopu, Giray and Barrioz, Vincent (2014) Cadmium Telluride Solar Cells on Ultrathin Glass for Space Applications. Journal of Electronic Materials, 43 (8). pp. 2818-2823. ISSN 0361-5235

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Abstract

This paper details the preliminary findings of a study to achieve a durable thin-film CdTe photovoltaic (PV) device structure on ultrathin space-qualified cover glass. An aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) transparent conducting oxide was deposited directly onto the cover glass using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The AZO demonstrated low sheet resistance of 10 Ω/□ and high optical transparency of 85% as well as excellent adherence and environmental stability. Preliminary deposition of PV layers onto the AZO on cover glass, by MOCVD, showed the possibility of such a structure, yielding a device conversion efficiency of 7.2%. High series resistance (10 Ω cm2) and low V oc (586 mV) were identified as the limiting factors when compared with the authors’ platform process on indium tin oxide-coated aluminosilicate. The coverage of the Cd1−x Zn x S window layer along with the front contacting of the device were shown to be the major causes of the low efficiency. Further deposition of AZO/CdTe employing an oxygen plasma cleaning step to the cover glass and evaporated gold front contacts significantly improved the device performance. With a highest conversion efficiency of 10.2%, series resistance improved to 4.4 Ω cm2, open-circuit voltage (V oc) up to 667 mV, and good adhesion, this represents the first demonstration of direct deposition of CdTe solar cells onto 100-μm-thick space-qualified cover glass.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Photovoltaic, flexible solar cells, cadmium telluride, space applications
Subjects:	F200 Materials Science
Department:	Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	23 Nov 2015 14:57
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2019 19:20
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/24683

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