Abstract
Using a 10 nm thick molybdenum oxide (MoO3-x) layer as a transparent and low barrier contact to p-CdTe, we demonstrate nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cells with a power conversion efficiency of 11% under front side illumination. Annealing the as-deposited MoO3 film in N2 resulted in a reduction of the cell's series resistance, from 9.97 Ω/cm2 to 7.69 Ω/cm2, and increase in efficiency from 9.9% to 11%. Under illumination from the back, the MoO3-x/Au side, the nanowire solar cells yielded Jsc of 21 mA/cm2 and efficiency of 8.67%. Our results demonstrate use of a thin layer transition metal oxide as a potential way for a transparent back contact to nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cells. This work has implications toward enabling a novel superstrate structure nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cell on Al foil substrate by a low cost roll-to roll fabrication process.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-6-2015
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep14859
Funding Information
This work was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation, (NSF-NIRT-ECS-0609064) and (NSF-EPCOR EPS-0447479), Department of Energy/Kentucky Renewable Energy Consortium (DE-FG36-05G085013/ULRF 05-1231G, (NSF-EPS-0447479) and by grants from the Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation, (KSEF–148-502-02-27, KSEF- 148-502-03-68).
Repository Citation
Dang, Hongmei and Singh, Vijay P., "Nanowire CdS-CdTe Solar Cells with Molybdenum Oxide as Contact" (2015). Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications. 8.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ece_facpub/8
Figure 1
srep14859-f2.jpg (216 kB)
Figure 2
srep14859-f3.jpg (67 kB)
Figure 3: Normalized relative EQE of the nanowire CdS/CdTe solar cells on intrinsic SnO<sub>2</sub>/ITO/Soda-lime glass substrate.
srep14859-f4.jpg (98 kB)
Figure 4: J-V curves of nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cells with as deposited MoO<sub>3</sub>/Au back contacts under front side illumination, annealing MoO<sub>3</sub>/Au back contacts under dark, front side and back side illuminations.
srep14859-f5.jpg (39 kB)
Figure 5: Energy Band Discontinuities between the CdTe absorber and the MoO<sub>3−x</sub>/Au back contact layers.
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Scientific Reports, v. 5, article 14859, p. 1-7.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/