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Preparation and characterization of glass/FTO/CdS/ED-CdTe/Ag thin film for photovoltaic applications

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Abstract

Inorganic thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells have been fabricated using the n-type cadmium sulfide (CdS) window and p-type cadmium telluride (CdTe) absorber layers. This work combines significant literature with new results from a research programme including electroplated and chemical bath deposited CdTe and CdS, respectively. The structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of the CdTe/CdS layers have been studied through X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), photoluminescence (PL), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), and UV–Visible spectroscopy. The XRD results confirm the cubic crystalline structure of CdS and CdTe layers. The band-gap values of the CdS and CdTe layers are estimated from absorption spectra and corresponding Tauc’s plot as 2.35 eV and 1.51 eV, respectively. The optical performance in terms of transmittance and PL spectra suggests that these films are suitable for photovoltaic (PV) applications. The results of HRTEM study confirm that CdS/CdTe particles are in circular shape with seed size (~3.2 nm). The lattice spacing between the nanocrystals is approximately 0.30 nm along with a diameter around 3.2 nm. A FE-SEM cross-section image shows a CdTe layer with thickness ~1.1 μm. To study the PV parameters of the fabricated CdTe/CdS cell, the current-voltage (J–V) characteristic curve is plotted. The efficiency of the PV cell is calculated to be 9.80%. Finally, the possibility to carry out the work with low-cost materials that are columnar in nature is discussed.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), New Delhi, India for financial support under Extra Mural Research Project no. EMR/2017/000431. The authors are grateful to the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, NIT Raipur, and Sophisticated Test and Analysis Centre, Cochin University, India also for their help in performing XRD, SEM, and HRTEM studies at their Centres.

Funding

Funding was provided by Science and Engineering Research Board (Grant No. EMR/2017/000431).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thin Film Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, 492010, India

    Lekha Verma & Ayush Khare

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  1. Lekha Verma
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  2. Ayush Khare
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Contributions

Both the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were done by LV while analysis part was carried out by AK. The first draft of the manuscript was written by LV and then reviewed by AK. Both the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ayush Khare.

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Verma, L., Khare, A. Preparation and characterization of glass/FTO/CdS/ED-CdTe/Ag thin film for photovoltaic applications. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 24690–24705 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09177-7

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