Voltage Dependent Photocurrent Collection in CdTe/CdS Solar Cells

摘要

The voltage dependence of the photocurrent J_L(V) of CdTe/CdS solar cells has been characterized by separating the forward current from the photocurrent at several illumination intensities. J_L(V) reduces the fill factor (FF) of typical cells by 10-15 points, the open circuit voltage (Voc) by 20-50 mV, and the efficiency by 2-4 points. Eliminating the effect of J_L(V) establishes superposition between light and dark J(V) curves for some cells. Two models for voltage dependent collection give reasonable fits to the data: (1) a single carrier Hecht model developed for drift collection in p-i-n solar cells in which fitting yields a parameter consistent with lifetimes of 10~(-9) s as measured by others; or (2) the standard depletion region and bulk diffusion length model fits almost as well. The simple Hecht-like drift collection model for photocurrent gives very good agreement to J(V) curves measured under AMI.5 light on CdTe/CdS solar cells with FF from 53 percent to 70 percent, CdTe thickness from 1.8 to 7.0 mu m, in initial and stressed states. Accelerated thermal and bias stressing increases J_L(V) losses as does insufficient Cu. This method provides a new metric for tracking device performance, characterizes transport in the high field depletion region, and quantifies a significant FF loss in CdTe solar cells.