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Low temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy studies on sputter deposited CdS/CdTe junctions and solar cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2016

Mohit Tuteja ,
Prakash Koirala ,
Julio Soares ,
Robert Collins  and
Angus Rockett
Mohit Tuteja*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
Prakash Koirala
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA
Julio Soares
Affiliation:
Frederick-Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
Robert Collins
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA
Angus Rockett
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: tuteja2@illinois.edu
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Abstract

Device quality CdS/CdTe heterostructures and completed solar cells (∼12% efficient) have been studied using photoluminescence (PL) as a function of temperature and laser excitation power. The CdS/CdTe junctions were grown on transparent conducting oxide covered soda lime glass using radio frequency sputter deposition. In the current work we found that the PL spectra of sputtered and thermally evaporated CdTe absorber films share common features. It was found that the luminescence shifts from being dominated by sub-gap defect-mediated emission at lower excitation powers to near band edge excitonic emission at higher excitation powers. It was found that the presence of Cu suppresses the sub-band gap PL emissions. This effect was concluded to be due either to Cu occupying cadmium vacancies (VCd) or forming acceptor complexes with them. This points to a potential role of Cu in eliminating sub-band gap recombination routes and hence increasing the charge separation ability of the device.

Keywords

luminescenceelectronic structurephotovoltaic
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , 28 January 2016 , pp. 186 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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