Effect of SnO₂ Roughness and CdS Thickness on the Performance of CdS/CdTe Solar Cells

Author

Lingeshwar Nemani, University of South Florida

Graduation Year

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.S.E.E.

Degree Granting Department

Electrical Engineering

Major Professor

Christos S.Ferekides, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Don L.Morel, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Yun L.Chiou, Ph.D.

Keywords

Textured tco, Cdcl2 treatment, Interdiffusion, Light-trapping, Thin-films

Abstract

Textured SnO₂ films as TCO have been investigated to determine the effect of surface roughness on the performance of CdS/CdTe solar cells. Film roughness was controlled by varying the substrate temperature. Characterization of the SnO2 films has also carried out using AFM measurements. It was found that increase in substrate temperature results in increased roughness of the film.

A series of cells were fabricated with different CdS thicknesses to determine the combined effect of SnO₂ roughness and CdS thickness. As a part of fabrication process, cells were subjected to different post deposition treatments. It was observed that roughness seems to be critical when CdS remained in the final device is thin. The performance of CdS/CdTe devices fabricated was characterized using J-V and spectral response measurements. It was found that cells with initial CdS thickness of 1000 showed better performance than those with thicker CdS for the same roughness of SnO₂.

Conversion efficiency of 13.37% was achieved by increasing the SnO₂ roughness and depositing thicker CdS initially.

Scholar Commons Citation

Nemani, Lingeshwar, "Effect of SnO₂ Roughness and CdS Thickness on the Performance of CdS/CdTe Solar Cells" (2005). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/790