Semitransparent CdTe solar cell with over 70% near-infrared transmittance
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Semitransparent CdTe solar cell with over 70% nearinfrared transmittance Jingmei Li1, Fan He1, Xia Hao1,3,* , Sen Lin2, Wu Long2, Tian Gan2, Lili Wu2,3, Jingquan Zhang2,3, and Lianghuan Feng2,3 1
Institute of New Energy and Low-Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China Institute of Solar Energy Materials and Devices, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China 3 Engineering Research Center of Alternative Energy Materials & Devices, Ministry of Education, Chengdu 610065, China 2
Received: 16 July 2020
ABSTRACT
Accepted: 27 August 2020
CdTe solar cell is a promising alternative to conventional silicon solar cells and it is quite potential to be utilized as a top sub-cell for tandem solar cells to improve the power conversion efficiency of the existing single-junction devices, whose efficiency has been approaching their practical efficiency limit. Thus, the research and development of semitransparent CdTe solar cells are urgently required. In this work, semitransparent CdTe solar cells were prepared by utilizing 900-nmthick ultrathin CdTe absorber and CuCl/ITO transparent back contacts. The ultrathin CdTe in the present work was prepared by magnetron sputtering and the effects of substrate temperature and deposition ambient were extensively investigated. CdTe thin films with minimal dislocation density and lowest internal strain were fabricated at a substrate temperature of 235 °C with pure Ar atmosphere. The improved optical–electrical properties of CdTe absorber were then contributing on device performance, and as a result, we successfully fabricated a semitransparent CdTe solar cell with an optimal efficiency of 8.60%. It is worth noting that the transmittance around 1000 nm in the near-infrared region (NIR) is over 70%, which is the highest value among the as-reported semitransparent CdTe solar cells. The present work paves a way to optimize the performance and improve the optical transmittance of semitransparent CdTe solar cells so that it strongly supports their potential applications in bifacial and/ or tandem configurations, building integrated photovoltaics, and so on.
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Springer Science+Business
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-04368-6
J Mater Sci: Mater Electron
1 Introduction To deal with the energy crisis, low-cost and highly efficient solar energy conversion technologies have been on the agenda for decades. The research on multi-junction solar cells is one of the hottest topics because dominant single-junction architectural solar cells have been approaching their practical efficiency limit of 25–27% without further booming increases [1]. Among this prevalent trend, the commercially available thin-film-based CdTe solar-cell technology accordingly has captured great attentions. The worldrecord power conversion efficiency of CdTe solar cell is up to 22.1% [1]. Promising high efficiency and economic competitiveness of CdTe/Si four-term
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