Windowless CdSe/CdTe Solar Cells with Differentiated Back Contacts: J–V, EQE, and Photocurrent Mapping

This study presents windowless CdSe/CdTe thin film photovoltaic devices with in-plane patterning at a submicrometer length scale. The photovoltaic cells are fabricated upon two interdigitated comb electrodes prepatterned at micrometer length scale on an insulating substrate. CdSe is electrodeposited on one electrode, and CdTe is deposited by pulsed laser deposition over the entire surface of the resulting structure. Previous studies of symmetric devices are extended in this study. Specifically, device performance is explored with asymmetric devices having fixed CdTe contact width and a range of CdSe contact widths, and the devices are fabricated with improved dimensional tolerance. Scanning photocurrent microscopy (also known as laser beam induced current mapping) is used to examine local current collection efficiency, providing information on the spatial variation of performance that complements current-voltage and external quantum efficiency measurements of overall device performance. Modeling of carrier transport and recombination indicates consistency of experimental results for local and blanket illumination. Performance under simulated air mass 1.5 illumination exceeds 5% for all dimensions examined, and the best-performing device achieved 5.9% efficiency.