Journal
NATURE ENERGY
Volume 1, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/NENERGY.2016.67
Keywords
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Funding
- Department of Energy BAPVC Program [DE-EE0004946]
- NSF/DOE QESST ERC [DE-EE0006335]
- AFOSR [FA9550-15-1-0196]
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The open-circuit voltages of mature single-junction photovoltaic devices are lower than the bandgap energy of the absorber, typically by a gap of 400mV. For CdTe, which has a bandgap of 1.5 eV, the gap is larger; for polycrystalline samples, the open-circuit voltage of solar cells with the record efficiency is below 900mV, whereas for monocrystalline samples it has only recently achieved values barely above 1V. Here, we report a monocrystalline CdTe/MgCdTe double-heterostructure solar cell with open-circuit voltages of up to 1.096V. The latticed-matched MgCdTe barrier layers provide excellent passivation to the CdTe absorber, resulting in a carrier lifetime of 3.6 mu s. The solar cells are made of 1- to 1.5-mu m-thick n-type CdTe absorbers, and passivated hole-selective p-type a-SiCy:H contacts. This design allows CdTe solar cells to be made thinner and more efficient. The best power conversion efficiency achieved in a device with this structure is 17.0%.
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