Surface Passivation of CdTe Single Crystals

Low open-circuit voltages (850-870 mV), due to excessive bulk and surface recombination, currently limit CdTe photovoltaic efficiencies. Here, we study surface recombination in single crystals with single-photon excitation time-resolved photoluminescence (1PE-TRPL) to measure minority carrier lifeti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of photovoltaics 2015-01, Vol.5 (1), p.382-385
Main Authors: Reese, Matthew O., Burst, James M., Perkins, Craig L., Kanevce, Ana, Johnston, Steven W., Kuciauskas, Darius, Barnes, Teresa M., Metzger, Wyatt K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cadmium compounds
Charge carrier lifetime
Crystals
Passivation
Photoluminescence
photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaic systems
Radiative recombination
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Low open-circuit voltages (850-870 mV), due to excessive bulk and surface recombination, currently limit CdTe photovoltaic efficiencies. Here, we study surface recombination in single crystals with single-photon excitation time-resolved photoluminescence (1PE-TRPL) to measure minority carrier lifetimes. Typically, minority carrier lifetimes of untreated undoped CdTe material as measured by 1PE-TRPL are ~100 ps or less, even though their bulk lifetimes as measured by two-photon excitation TRPL can reach 100 ns. Such short 1PE-TRPL lifetimes indicate very high surface recombination velocities exceeding 100 000 cm/s. Here, we examine treatments that can reduce surface recombination and discuss different ways of evaluating their efficacy.
ISSN:2156-3381
2156-3403
DOI:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2362298