Performance Comparison of CdTe:Na, CdTe:As, and CdTe:P Single Crystals for Solar Cell Applications

We compared thermal stability, open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and fill factor values of single-crystal Cadmium telluride (CdTe) grown using the vertical Bridgman (VB) technique and doped with group V elements (phosphorus and arsenic), and group Ⅰ element (sodium), followed by an anneal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Materials 2022-02, Vol.15 (4), p.1408
Main Authors: Kim, Sangsu, Kim, Deok, Hong, Jinki, Elmughrabi, Abdallah, Melis, Alima, Yeom, Jung-Yeol, Park, Chansun, Cho, Shinhaeng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Annealing
Arsenic
Bridgman method
Cadmium tellurides
Carrier lifetime
Circuits
Crystal growth
Dopants
Efficiency
Hole density
Interfacial properties
Lifetime
Minority carriers
Open circuit voltage
Phosphorus
Photovoltaic cells
Short circuit currents
Single crystals
Sodium
Solar cells
Space missions
Thermal stability
Thermal stress
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Summary:We compared thermal stability, open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and fill factor values of single-crystal Cadmium telluride (CdTe) grown using the vertical Bridgman (VB) technique and doped with group V elements (phosphorus and arsenic), and group Ⅰ element (sodium), followed by an annealing process. The sodium-doped CdTe maintained a hole density of 10 cm or higher; after annealing for a long time, this decreased to 10 cm or less. The arsenic-doped CdTe maintained a hole density of approximately 10 cm even after the annealing process; however its bulk minority carrier lifetime decreased by approximately 10%. The phosphorus-doped CdTe maintained its properties after the annealing process, ultimately achieving a hole density of ~10 cm and a minority carrier lifetime of ~40 ns. The characteristics of a single-crystal solar cell were evaluated using a solar cell device that contained single-crystal CdTe with various dopants. The sodium-doped sample exhibited poor interfacial properties, and its performance decreased rapidly during annealing. The samples doped with group V elements exhibited stable characteristics even during long-term annealing. We concluded, therefore, that group V elements dopants are more suitable for CdTe single-crystal-based solar cell applications involving thermal stress conditions, such as space missions or extreme fabrication temperature environments.
ISSN:1996-1944
1996-1944
DOI:10.3390/ma15041408