Ultra-thin bifacial CdTe solar cell

Developing a high-quality transparent back contact, while maintaining efficient light transmission through the top absorber layer, are key components for achieving high-efficiency II–VI polycrystalline thin-film tandem solar cells. Combining these two elements, we fabricated ultra-thin bifacial CdTe solar cells (0.68 μm) with ZnTe:N/ITO transparent back contact and achieved efficiencies of 5.7% and 5.0% with illumination from the glass and the contact side, respectively. Device analysis, using (J–V) and QE measurements, show that the loss in efficiency is due to higher RS and J0 as well as lower, side-dependent, photons absorption.