Minority-carrier lifetime of polycrystalline CdTe in CdS/CdTe solar cells

Abstract

CdS/CdTe solar cells have been produced by low-cost spray technology. The NREL-measured efficiency of the best device is 12.7% at air mass 1.5. The first time, the minority-carrier lifetime of the polycrystalline CdTe grains was measured by time-resolved photoluminescence. The longest measured lifetimes were over 5 ns, and were found in large-grain ( approximately 4 mu m), high-density material near the CdS/CdTe interface.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>