20%-efficient polycrystalline Cd(Se,Te) thin-film solar cells with compositional gradient near the front junction

Deng-Bing Li, Sandip S. Bista, Rasha A. Awni, Sabin Neupane, Abasi Abudulimu, Xiaoming Wang, Kamala K. Subedi, Manoj K. Jamarkattel, Adam B. Phillips, Michael J. Heben, Jonathan D. Poplawsky, David A. Cullen, Randy J. Ellingson and Yanfa Yan ()
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Deng-Bing Li: University of Toledo
Sandip S. Bista: University of Toledo
Rasha A. Awni: University of Toledo
Sabin Neupane: University of Toledo
Abasi Abudulimu: University of Toledo
Xiaoming Wang: University of Toledo
Kamala K. Subedi: University of Toledo
Manoj K. Jamarkattel: University of Toledo
Adam B. Phillips: University of Toledo
Michael J. Heben: University of Toledo
Jonathan D. Poplawsky: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
David A. Cullen: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Randy J. Ellingson: University of Toledo
Yanfa Yan: University of Toledo

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Bandgap gradient is a proven approach for improving the open-circuit voltages (VOCs) in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu(Zn,Sn)Se2 thin-film solar cells, but has not been realized in Cd(Se,Te) thin-film solar cells, a leading thin-film solar cell technology in the photovoltaic market. Here, we demonstrate the realization of a bandgap gradient in Cd(Se,Te) thin-film solar cells by introducing a Cd(O,S,Se,Te) region with the same crystal structure of the absorber near the front junction. The formation of such a region is enabled by incorporating oxygenated CdS and CdSe layers. We show that the introduction of the bandgap gradient reduces the hole density in the front junction region and introduces a small spike in the band alignment between this and the absorber regions, effectively suppressing the nonradiative recombination therein and leading to improved VOCs in Cd(Se,Te) solar cells using commercial SnO2 buffers. A champion device achieves an efficiency of 20.03% with a VOC of 0.863 V.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35442-8

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