IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v1y2016i6d10.1038_nenergy.2016.67.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Monocrystalline CdTe solar cells with open-circuit voltage over 1 V and efficiency of 17%

Author

Listed:
  • Yuan Zhao

    (Center for Photonics Innovation
    School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering)

  • Mathieu Boccard

    (School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering)

  • Shi Liu

    (Center for Photonics Innovation
    School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering)

  • Jacob Becker

    (Center for Photonics Innovation
    School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering)

  • Xin-Hao Zhao

    (Center for Photonics Innovation
    School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy)

  • Calli M. Campbell

    (Center for Photonics Innovation
    School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy)

  • Ernesto Suarez

    (Center for Photonics Innovation
    School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering)

  • Maxwell B. Lassise

    (Center for Photonics Innovation
    School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering)

  • Zachary Holman

    (School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering)

  • Yong-Hang Zhang

    (Center for Photonics Innovation
    School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering)

Abstract

The open-circuit voltages of mature single-junction photovoltaic devices are lower than the bandgap energy of the absorber, typically by a gap of 400 mV. For CdTe, which has a bandgap of 1.5 eV, the gap is larger; for polycrystalline samples, the open-circuit voltage of solar cells with the record efficiency is below 900 mV, whereas for monocrystalline samples it has only recently achieved values barely above 1 V. Here, we report a monocrystalline CdTe/MgCdTe double-heterostructure solar cell with open-circuit voltages of up to 1.096 V. The latticed-matched MgCdTe barrier layers provide excellent passivation to the CdTe absorber, resulting in a carrier lifetime of 3.6 μs. The solar cells are made of 1- to 1.5-μm-thick n-type CdTe absorbers, and passivated hole-selective p-type a-SiCy:H contacts. This design allows CdTe solar cells to be made thinner and more efficient. The best power conversion efficiency achieved in a device with this structure is 17.0%.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuan Zhao & Mathieu Boccard & Shi Liu & Jacob Becker & Xin-Hao Zhao & Calli M. Campbell & Ernesto Suarez & Maxwell B. Lassise & Zachary Holman & Yong-Hang Zhang, 2016. "Monocrystalline CdTe solar cells with open-circuit voltage over 1 V and efficiency of 17%," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 1(6), pages 1-7, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:1:y:2016:i:6:d:10.1038_nenergy.2016.67
    DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2016.67
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nenergy201667
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nenergy.2016.67?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jianjun Li & Jialiang Huang & Fajun Ma & Heng Sun & Jialin Cong & Karen Privat & Richard F. Webster & Soshan Cheong & Yin Yao & Robert Lee Chin & Xiaojie Yuan & Mingrui He & Kaiwen Sun & Hui Li & Yaoh, 2022. "Unveiling microscopic carrier loss mechanisms in 12% efficient Cu2ZnSnSe4 solar cells," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(8), pages 754-764, August.
    2. Mohamed Hssan Hassan Abdelhafez & Mabrouk Touahmia & Emad Noaime & Ghazy Abdullah Albaqawy & Khaled Elkhayat & Belkacem Achour & Mustapha Boukendakdji, 2021. "Integrating Solar Photovoltaics in Residential Buildings: Towards Zero Energy Buildings in Hail City, KSA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:1:y:2016:i:6:d:10.1038_nenergy.2016.67. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.