Understanding the Copassivation Effect of Cl and Se for CdTe Grain Boundaries
Source abstract
Abstract
Chlorine passivation treatment of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells improves device performance by assisting electron-hole carrier separation at CdTe grain boundaries. Further improvement in device efficiency is observed after alloying the CdTe absorber layer with selenium. High-resolution secondary ion mass spectroscopy (NanoSIMS) imaging has been used to determine the distribution of selenium and chlorine at the CdTe grain boundaries in a selenium-graded CdTe device. Atomistic modeling based on density functional theory (DFT-1/2) further reveals that the presence of selenium and chlorine at an exemplar (110)/(100) CdTe grain boundary passivates critical acceptor defects and leads to n-type inversion at the grain boundary. The defect state analysis provides an explanation for the band-bending effects observed in the energy band alignment results, thereby elucidating mechanisms for high efficiencies observed in Se-alloyed and Cl-passivated CdTe solar cells.
Source: openalex_inverted_index · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Chalcogenide Semiconductor Thin Films · Quantum Dots Synthesis And Properties · Advanced Semiconductor Detectors and Materials
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, United States
CREST (Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology), Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, U.K.
Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, United States
Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, U.K.
Funding
U.S. Department of Energy · National Science Foundation
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