Study of spatially resolved impurity diffusion in CdTe solar cells using voltage dependent quantum efficiency

The performance stability of CdTe/CdS solar cells is strongly determined by diffusion of impurities from the back contact into the absorber layer and hetero-junction. Impurity migration changes the effective carrier concentration and barriers in the device by compensation of donors or acceptors and by creation of defect centres. The CdS window layer is particularly affected by this phenomenon, since the impurities tend to accumulate there. This can be characterised by measuring the voltage dependent, the so called apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) in the blue wavelength region, while the back contact can be analysed by the AQE in the IR. CdTe/CdS cells with different back contact materials have been stressed in different conditions and ambiences. When thermally stressed in presence of oxygen, enhanced AQEs were observed for cells containing Cu, while cells containing Sb showed negligible changes, in the UV range as well as in the IR range. In comparison, vacuum-stressed Cu containing cells showed lower AQEs, but still higher than non-stressed cells. Results of the stressing tests for different materials and in different conditions have been analysed and interpreted using the recently developed model of a modulated barrier in the US bulk. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.