Unveiling Defect-Mediated Charge-Carrier Recombination at the Nanometer Scale in Polycrystalline Solar Cells.

ABSTRACT: Solar cells made of polycrystalline thin-films can outperform their single-crystalline counterparts despite the presence of grain boundaries (GBs). To unveil the influence of GBs, high spatial resolution characterization techniques are needed to measure local properties in their vicinity. However, results obtained using single technique may provide limited aspects about the GB effect. Here, we employ two techniques, near-field scanning photocurrent microscopy (NSPM) and scanning transmission electron microscope based cathodoluminescence spectroscopy (STEM-CL), to characterize CdTe solar cells at the nanoscale. The signal contrast from the grain interiors (GIs) to the GBs, for high-efficiency cells where CdTe is deposited at a high substrate temperature (500 °C) and treated by CdCl₂

SUBMITTER: Yoon Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7291831 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature