Charge Transport Mechanisms and Device Parameters of CdS/CdTe Solar Cells Fabricated by Thermal Evaporation

Cdte/cds solar cells were fabricated entirely by thermal evaporation onto indium-tin-oxide (ito) coated glass substrates. the solar cells were characterized by i-v-t measurements conducted under dark and illuminated conditions. dark characteristics show a diode like behavior with an ideality factor in the range of 3.1 and 4.9. this indicates that the current is dominated by recombination current in the junction region. this has been attributed to a large density of deep defects likely to be present in a highly mismatched (10%) heterojunction between cdte and cds. power output and the fill factors of the cells have been calculated from the illuminated i-v characteristics which measure the short circuit currents and the open circuit voltages.