Molecular Adsorption-Mediated Control over the Electrical Characteristics of Polycrystalline CdTe/CdS Solar Cells

The effect of surface treatments on p‐CdTe/n‐CdS solar cell performance was examined. Adsorption of organic molecules with various magnitudes and directions of the dipole moment on p‐CdTe resulted in controlled changes in electron affinity and surface band bending. Similar adsorption on CdTe in stat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Chemphyschem Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 277 - 285
Main Authors:	Visoly-Fisher, Iris, Sitt, Amit, Wahab, Melina, Cahen, David
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 11-02-2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag Wiley
Subjects:	adsorption Applied sciences Energy Exact sciences and technology molecular devices monolayers Natural energy Photovoltaic conversion semiconductors solar cells Solar cells. Photoelectrochemical cells Solar energy Solar cell Adsorption monolayers Cadmium tellurides Polycrystal molecular devices solar cells Cadmium sulfide semiconductors Surface treatment Organic compounds
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Summary:	The effect of surface treatments on p‐CdTe/n‐CdS solar cell performance was examined. Adsorption of organic molecules with various magnitudes and directions of the dipole moment on p‐CdTe resulted in controlled changes in electron affinity and surface band bending. Similar adsorption on CdTe in state‐of‐the‐art p‐CdTe/n‐CdS solar cells changes the cell performance, and we explain this by a combination of increased series resistance and changes in light absorption and in cell photovoltage. While at this stage no improvement in performance has been found with these cell structures, which are the result of years of empirical optimization, the molecular effect on the photovoltage shows that it is possible in this way to control the photovoltaic effect at this junction. Separate optimization may well lead to improvement by inserting a dipole layer near the photovoltaic interface. Our results also show that this is even possible when dipole adsorption is performed on the complete polycrystalline thin‐film cell. Chemical modification of semiconductors can change their electronic surface energetics. In polycrystalline semiconductors with large surface areas, this can affect the bulk electronic behavior of the materials and devices made therefrom. We show how chemisorption of organic molecules on CdTe grain boundaries and surfaces (see schematic picture) of polycrystalline thin‐film p‐CdTe/n‐CdS solar cells systematically affects their photovoltaic properties.
Bibliography:	ark:/67375/WNG-CK2L0X24-M ArticleID:CPHC200400392 istex:622227CF8C0708D69764A305250077A65CDAA057 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1439-4235 1439-7641
DOI:	10.1002/cphc.200400392