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Open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and efficiency of a CdS/CdTe solar cell

  • Physics of Semiconductor Devices
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Abstract

The dependences of the open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and efficiency of the thin-film CdS/CdTe solar cell on the resistivity ρ and carrier lifetime τ in the absorbing CdTe layer were studied. In the common case in which the uncompensated acceptor concentration and the electron lifetime in the CdTe layer are within 1015–1016 cm−3 and 10−10–10−9 s, the calculation results correspond to the achieved efficiency of the best thin-film CdS/CdTe solar cells. It was shown that, by decreasing ρ and increasing τ in the absorbing CdTe layer, the open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and efficiency can be substantially increased, with their values approaching the theoretical limit for such devices.

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Correspondence to L. A. Kosyachenko.

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Original Russian Text © L.A. Kosyachenko, E.V. Grushko, 2010, published in Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2010, Vol. 44, No. 10, pp. 1422–1429.

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Kosyachenko, L.A., Grushko, E.V. Open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and efficiency of a CdS/CdTe solar cell. Semiconductors 44, 1375–1382 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782610100234

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782610100234

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