Transparent Ohmic Contacts for Solution-Processed, Ultrathin CdTe Solar Cells

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2017-01-13
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Kurley, J. Matthew
Panthani, Matthew
Crisp, Ryan
Nanayakkara, Sanjini
Pach, Gregory
Reese, Matthew
Hudson, Margaret
Dolzhnikov, Dmitriy
Tanygin, Vadim
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Panthani, Matthew
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Chemical and Biological Engineering
Abstract

Recently, solution-processing became a viable route for depositing CdTe for use in photovoltaics. Ultrathin (∼500 nm) solar cells have been made using colloidal CdTe nanocrystals with efficiencies exceeding 12% power conversion efficiency (PCE) demonstrated by using very simple device stacks. Further progress requires an effective method for extracting charge carriers generated during light harvesting. Here, we explored solution-based methods for creating transparent Ohmic contacts to the solution-deposited CdTe absorber layer and demonstrated molecular and nanocrystal approaches to Ohmic hole-extracting contacts at the ITO/CdTe interface. We used scanning Kelvin probe microscopy to further show how the above approaches improved carrier collection by reducing the potential drop under reverse bias across the ITO/CdTe interface. Other methods, such as spin-coating CdTe/A2CdTe2 (A = Na, K, Cs, N2H5), can be used in conjunction with current/light soaking to improve PCE further.

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This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Energy Letters, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00587. Posted with permission.

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Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2016
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