High short-circuit current density CdTe solar cells using all-electrodeposited semiconductors

CdS/CdTe and ZnS/CdTe n-n heterojunction solar cells have been fabricated using all-electrodeposited semiconductors. The best devices show remarkable high short-circuit current densities of 38.5 mAcm− 2 and 47.8 mAcm− 2, open-circuit voltages of 630 mV and 646 mV and conversion efficiencies of 8.0% and 12.0% respectively. The major strength of these device structures lies in the combination of n-n heterojunction with a large Schottky barrier at the n-CdTe/metal back contact which provides the required band bending for the separation of photo-generated charge carriers. This is in addition to the use of a high quality n-type CdTe absorber layer with high electron mobility. The potential barrier heights estimated for these devices from the current-voltage characteristics exceed 1.09 eV and 1.13 eV for CdS/CdTe and ZnS/CdTe cells respectively. The diode rectification factors of both devices are in excess of four orders of magnitude with reverse saturation current densities of 1.0 × 10− 7 Acm− 2 and 4.0 × 10− 7 Acm− 2 respectively. These all-electrodeposited solar cell device structures are currently being studied and developed as an alternative to the well-known p-n junction structures which utilise chemical bath-deposited CdS. The preliminary material growth, device fabrication and assessment results are presented in this paper.