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Thickness and annealing evolution to physical properties of e-beam evaporated ZnTe thin films as a rear contact for CdTe solar cells

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Abstract

The CdTe solar cell engineering is still lacking maximum achievable power conversion efficiency as predicted based upon the detailed balance. In device development, each constituent layer plays important role and to reduce open-circuit voltage loss, the reduction of back surface recombination is a promising approach. It could be made by introducing a wide-band gap ZnTe layer between the absorber CdTe layer and metal contact which can solve the issue of the Schottky barrier at the interface. The ZnTe layers also need optimization to the physical properties to implicate in CdTe-based device and therefore, the present work reports annealing and thickness evolution to ZnTe films to seek their feasibility as rear contact material where 200 nm and 300 nm thin ZnTe films are developed employing e-beam evaporation and subsequently annealed at 100 °C, 200 °C and 300 °C in air ambient followed by characterizations by amicable tools for exploration of relevant physical properties. Findings demonstrate that the film thickness and annealing temperature have considerably affected the physical properties of the developed films and the 200 nm ZnTe thin films annealed at 100 °C may be implicated as rear contact material in CdTe solar cell devices.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are highly thankful to Department of Science and Technology, Rajasthan, Jaipur for providing financial support under the Research and Development Project vide (No. F.7 (3) ST/R&D/2016/5677). The authors are also thankful to MRC, MNIT, Jaipur, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore and the Department of Physics, MLSU, Udaipur for providing deposition and characterization facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, 313001, India

    Deepak Suthar,  Himanshu, S. L. Patel & M. S. Dhaka

  2. Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India

    S. Chander

  3. Department of Physics, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, 641004, India

    M. D. Kannan

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  1. Deepak Suthar
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Suthar, D., Himanshu, Patel, S.L. et al. Thickness and annealing evolution to physical properties of e-beam evaporated ZnTe thin films as a rear contact for CdTe solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 32, 19070–19082 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-06424-1

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