Assessment of photovoltaic junction position using combined focused ion beam and electron beam-induced current analysis of close space sublimation deposited CdTe solar cells

Major, Jonathan Douglas; Bowen, Leon; Treharne, Robert; Durose, Ken

doi:10.1002/pip.2507

Assessment of photovoltaic junction position using combined focused ion beam and electron beam-induced current analysis of close space sublimation deposited CdTe solar cells

Major, Jonathan Douglas; Bowen, Leon; Treharne, Robert; Durose, Ken

Authors

Jonathan Douglas Major

Leon Bowen leon.bowen@durham.ac.uk
Senior Manager (Electron Microscopy)

Robert Treharne

Ken Durose

Abstract

A major limitation of the cross‐section electron beam‐induced current method—the use of roughly fractured surfaces to provide the cross‐section—has been overcome with the use of focused ion beam microscope sample preparation. Using this method, it was possible to undertake a study of the relation between junction position and the corresponding external quantum efficiency (EQE) curves. For the case of cadmium telluride (CdTe) cells, it was demonstrated that the EQE curve shape that indicates a buried CdTe homojunction only arises if the junction is buried by more than 0.9 µm from the heterointerface. This highlights the limitations of interpreting EQE curve shape to determine junction position. It was also shown that extended postgrowth annealing degrades the cadmium sulfide by Kirkendall voiding, and this leads to efficiency loss.

Citation

Major, J. D., Bowen, L., Treharne, R., & Durose, K. (2014). Assessment of photovoltaic junction position using combined focused ion beam and electron beam-induced current analysis of close space sublimation deposited CdTe solar cells. Progress in Photovoltaics, 22(10), 1096-1104. https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2507

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 31, 2014
Online Publication Date	Jun 2, 2014
Publication Date	Oct 1, 2014
Deposit Date	Jun 27, 2018
Publicly Available Date	Jul 17, 2018
Journal	Progress in Photovoltaics
Print ISSN	1062-7995
Electronic ISSN	1099-159X
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	22
Issue	10
Pages	1096-1104
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2507

Files

Published Journal Article (1.2 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2014 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.