Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review

Hall, Ralph; Lamb, Dan; Irvine, Stuart

doi:10.1002/ese3.843

Journal article 706 views 258 downloads

Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review

Ralph Hall

, Dan Lamb

, Stuart Irvine

Energy Science & Engineering, Volume: 9, Issue: 5, Pages: 606 - 632

Swansea University Authors: Ralph Hall , Dan Lamb , Stuart Irvine

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DOI (Published version): 10.1002/ese3.843

Abstract

CdTe is the leading commercial thin film photovoltaic technology with current record laboratory efficiency (22.1%). However, there is much potential for progress toward the Shockley‐Queisser limit (32%). The best CdTe devices have short‐circuit current close to the limit but open‐circuit voltage has...

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Published in:	Energy Science & Engineering
ISSN:	2050-0505 2050-0505
Published:	Wiley 2021
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56320
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first_indexed	2021-02-24T15:11:59Z
last_indexed	2021-06-09T03:22:30Z
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spelling	2021-06-08T17:01:09.3230971 v2 56320 2021-02-24 Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review a6bca6c4c759caa576b4ea52c456498a 0000-0002-7579-6838 Ralph Hall Ralph Hall true false decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0 0000-0002-4762-4641 Dan Lamb Dan Lamb true false 1ddb966eccef99aa96e87f1ea4917f1f 0000-0002-1652-4496 Stuart Irvine Stuart Irvine true false 2021-02-24 MTLS CdTe is the leading commercial thin film photovoltaic technology with current record laboratory efficiency (22.1%). However, there is much potential for progress toward the Shockley‐Queisser limit (32%). The best CdTe devices have short‐circuit current close to the limit but open‐circuit voltage has much room for improvement. Back contact optimization is likely to play a key role in any improvement. Back contact material choice is also influenced by their applicability in more complex architectures such as bifacial and tandem solar cells, where high visible and/or near‐infrared transparency is required in conjunction with their electrical properties. The CdTe research community has employed many back contact materials and processes to realize them. Excellent reviews of back contacts were published by McCandless and Sites (2011) and Kumar and Rao (2014). There have been numerous publications on CdTe back contacts since 2014. This review includes both recent and older literature to give a comprehensive picture. It includes a categorization of back contact interface materials into groups such as oxides, chalcogenides, pnictides, halides, and organics. The authors attempt to identify the more promising material groups. Attention is drawn to parallels with back contact materials used on other thin film photovoltaics such as perovskites and kesterites. Journal Article Energy Science & Engineering 9 5 606 632 Wiley 2050-0505 2050-0505 back contacts, CdTe, contact materials, solar cell efficiency, thin film solar cells 31 5 2021 2021-05-31 10.1002/ese3.843 COLLEGE NANME Materials Science and Engineering COLLEGE CODE MTLS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) EPSRC EP/R035997/1 2021-06-08T17:01:09.3230971 2021-02-24T15:09:37.3813448 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Materials Science and Engineering Ralph Hall 0000-0002-7579-6838 1 Dan Lamb 0000-0002-4762-4641 2 Stuart Irvine 0000-0002-1652-4496 3 56320__19365__2a3ef105f5b044839a1964f09da8868e.pdf 56320.pdf 2021-02-24T15:11:33.5548854 Output 650713 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2021 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review
spellingShingle	Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review Ralph Hall Dan Lamb Stuart Irvine
title_short	Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review
title_full	Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review
title_fullStr	Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review
title_full_unstemmed	Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review
title_sort	Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review
author_id_str_mv	a6bca6c4c759caa576b4ea52c456498a decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0 1ddb966eccef99aa96e87f1ea4917f1f
author_id_fullname_str_mv	a6bca6c4c759caa576b4ea52c456498a_*_Ralph Hall decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0__Dan Lamb 1ddb966eccef99aa96e87f1ea4917f1f_**_Stuart Irvine
author	Ralph Hall Dan Lamb Stuart Irvine
author2	Ralph Hall Dan Lamb Stuart Irvine
format	Journal article
container_title	Energy Science & Engineering
container_volume	9
container_issue	5
container_start_page	606
publishDate	2021
institution	Swansea University
issn	2050-0505 2050-0505
doi_str_mv	10.1002/ese3.843
publisher	Wiley
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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description	CdTe is the leading commercial thin film photovoltaic technology with current record laboratory efficiency (22.1%). However, there is much potential for progress toward the Shockley‐Queisser limit (32%). The best CdTe devices have short‐circuit current close to the limit but open‐circuit voltage has much room for improvement. Back contact optimization is likely to play a key role in any improvement. Back contact material choice is also influenced by their applicability in more complex architectures such as bifacial and tandem solar cells, where high visible and/or near‐infrared transparency is required in conjunction with their electrical properties. The CdTe research community has employed many back contact materials and processes to realize them. Excellent reviews of back contacts were published by McCandless and Sites (2011) and Kumar and Rao (2014). There have been numerous publications on CdTe back contacts since 2014. This review includes both recent and older literature to give a comprehensive picture. It includes a categorization of back contact interface materials into groups such as oxides, chalcogenides, pnictides, halides, and organics. The authors attempt to identify the more promising material groups. Attention is drawn to parallels with back contact materials used on other thin film photovoltaics such as perovskites and kesterites.
published_date	2021-05-31T04:11:11Z
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Back contacts materials used in thin film CdTe solar cells—A review

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