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Published on: July 19, 2019
Nanowire CdS-CdTe Solar Cells with Molybdenum Oxide as Contact
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CeNSE), University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506-0046, USA.
Abstract:
Using a 10 nm thick molybdenum oxide (MoO3-x) layer as a transparent and low barrier contact to p-CdTe, we demonstrate nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cells with a power conversion efficiency of 11% under front side illumination. Annealing the as-deposited MoO3 film in N2 resulted in a reduction of the cell's series resistance, from 9.97 Ω/cm(2) to 7.69 Ω/cm(2), and increase in efficiency from 9.9% to 11%. Under illumination from the back, the MoO3-x/Au side, the nanowire solar cells yielded Jsc of 21 mA/cm(2) and efficiency of 8.67%. Our results demonstrate use of a thin layer transition metal oxide as a potential way for a transparent back contact to nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cells. This work has implications toward enabling a novel superstrate structure nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cell on Al foil substrate by a low cost roll-to roll fabrication process.

