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Surface Passivation of p-GaTe Layered Crystals for Improved p-GaTe/n-InSe Heterojunction Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Krishna C. Mandal ,
Sandip Das ,
Ramesh Krishna ,
Peter G. Muzykov ,
Shuguo Ma  and
Feng Zhao
Krishna C. Mandal
Affiliation:
mandalk@cec.sc.edu, University of South Carolina, Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Sandip Das
Affiliation:
mandalk@cec.sc.edu, University of South Carolina, Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Ramesh Krishna
Affiliation:
krishna@email.sc.edu, University of South Carolina, Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Peter G. Muzykov
Affiliation:
muzykovp@cec.sc.edu, University of South Carolina, Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Shuguo Ma
Affiliation:
mas@engr.sc.edu, University of South Carolina, Nanocenter, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Feng Zhao
Affiliation:
zhaof2@cec.sc.edu, University of South Carolina, Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
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Abstract

GaTe and GaTe:In single crystals were grown from high purity Ga (7N) and zone refined Te (>7N) precursor materials. InSe thin films were deposited by thermal evaporation onto the sulfur passivated GaTe:In substrates at various substrate temperatures from 450K-550K to fabricate p-GaTe:In/n-InSe heterojunction solar cells. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize GaTe:In crystals and InSe thin film surfaces. The current-voltage characteristics of p-GaTe:In/n-InSe solar cells were measured under dark and under illumination of 75mW/cm2. Dark J-V measurements showed that the reverse saturation current density (J0) decreased from 3.8 x 10-6 A/cm2 to 1.5 x 10-9 A/cm2 and the ideality factor was reduced from 2.04 to 1.15 as a result of surface passivation. Under illumination of 75 mW/cm2, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) increased from 0.54V to 0.68V and short-circuit current density (Jsc) increased from 7.19 mA/cm2 to 8.65 mA/cm2 for solar cells with surface passivated GaTe:In substrates, leading to an increased solar cell efficiency of 5.03%. EPMA measurements revealed that the InSe thin films deposited at 550 K on GaTe:In substrates were near stoichiometric with enhanced grain size contributing also to better solar cell performance.

Keywords

semiconductingpassivationphotovoltaic
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1268: Symposium EE – Defects in Inorganic Photovoltaic Materials , 2010 , 1268-EE02-10
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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References

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