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Prakash Koirala PhD Thesis.pdf (24.39 MB)

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Multichannel Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for CdTe Photovoltaics: from Materials and Interfaces to Solar Cells

Koirala, Prakash
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430488231

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Physics.
Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) in the mid-infrared to ultraviolet range has been implemented in order to develop and evaluate optimization procedures for CdTe solar cells at the different stages of fabrication. In this dissertation research, real time SE (RT-SE) has been applied during the fabrication of the as-deposited CdS/CdTe solar cell. Two areas of background research were addressed before undertaking the challenging RT-SE analysis procedures. First, optical functions were parameterized versus temperature for the glass substrate and its overlayers, including three different SnO2 layers. This database has applications not only for RT-SE analysis but also for on-line monitoring of the coated glass itself at elevated temperature. Second, post-deposition modifications of substrate have been studied by infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry (IR-SE) prior to the RT-SE analysis in order to evaluate the need for such modification in the analysis. With support from these background studies, RT-SE has been implemented in analyses of the evolution of the thin film structural properties during sputter deposition of polycrystalline CdS/CdTe solar cells on the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) coated glass substrates. The real time optical spectra collected during CdS/CdTe deposition were analyzed using the optical property database for all substrate components as a function of measurement temperature. RT-SE enables characterization of the filling process of the surface roughness modulations on the top-most SnO2 substrate layer, commonly referred to as the high resistivity transparent (HRT) layer. In this filling process, the optical properties of this surface layer are modified in accordance with an effective medium theory. In addition to providing information on interface formation to the substrate during film growth, RT-SE also provides information on the bulk layer CdS growth, its surface roughness evolution, as well as overlying CdTe interface formation and bulk layer growth. Information from RT-SE at a single point during solar cell stack deposition assists in the development of a model that has been used for mapping the properties of the completed cell stack, which can then be correlated with device performance. Independent non-uniformities in the layers over the full area of the cell stack enable optimization of cell performance combinatorially. The polycrystalline CdS/CdTe thin-film solar cell in the superstrate configuration has been studied by SE using glass side illumination whereby the single reflection from the glass/film-stack interface is collected whereas that from the ambient/glass interface and those from multiple glass/film-stack reflections are rejected. The SE data analysis applies an optical model consisting of a multilayer stack with bulk and interface layers. The dielectric functions ¿¿for the solar cell component materials were obtained by variable-angle and in-situ SE. Variability in the properties of the materials are introduced through free parameters in analytical expressions for the dielectric functions. In the SE analysis of the complete cell, a step-wise procedure ranks all free parameters of the model, including thicknesses and those defining the spectra in¿¿, according to their ability to reduce the root-mean-square deviation between simulated and measured SE spectra. The results for the best fit thicknesses compare well with electron microscopy. From the optical model, including all best-fit parameters, the solar cell quantum efficiency (QE) can be simulated without free parameters, and comparisons with QE measurements have enabled the identification of losses. The capabilities have wide applications in off-line photovoltaic module mapping and in-line monitoring of coated glass at intermediate stages of production. Mapping spectroscopic ellipsometry (M-SE) has been applied in this dissertation research as an optimization procedure for polycrystalline CdS/CdTe solar cell fabrication on TCO coated glass superstrates. During fabrication of these solar cells, the structure undergoes key processing steps after the sputter-deposition of the CdS/CdTe. These steps include CdCl2 treatment of the CdTe layer and subsequent deposition of ultrathin Cu. Additional steps involve final metal back contact layer deposition and an anneal for Cu diffusion that completes the device. In this study, we have fabricated cells with variable absorber thicknesses, ranging from 0.5 to 2.5 ¿m, and variable CdCl2 treatment times, ranging from 5 to 30 min. Because both CdS window and Cu back contact layers are critical for determining device performance, the ability to characterize their deposition processes and determine the resulting process-property-performance relationships is important for device optimization. We have applied M-SE to map the effective thickness (volume/area) of the CdS and Cu films over 15 cm x 15 cm substrates prior to the fabrication of 16 x 16 arrays of dot cells. We report correlations of cell performance parameters with the CdCl2 treatment time and with the effective thicknesses from M-SE analysis. We demonstrate that correlations between optical/structural parameters extracted from M-SE analysis and device performance parameters facilitate process optimization. We have explored and applied p-type semiconducting materials as novel back contact materials in CdTe solar cells. Wide band-gap, p-type doped, hydrogenated amorphous silicon-carbon alloy (a-Si1-xCx:H:B) layers deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) under conditions that yield efficient hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a Si:H) p-i-n solar cells have been applied as back contacts to sputter-deposited CdTe superstrate solar cells. We report a maximum observed Voc value of 0.78 V and a best initial efficiency of ~ 7.7 % (relative to an ~ 12% standard cell baseline) without the introduction of Cu into the back contact region. Instability of solar cells that incorporate such back contacts have hindered their further development. We also applied copper indium diselenide (CuInSe2) as a novel back contact material in CdTe solar cells in the superstrate configuration. We report a maximum observed Voc value of 0.68 V and a best efficiency of ~ 6.4 % (relative to an ~ 12.6 % standard cell baseline) without the introduction of Cu.
Robert Collins, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Nikolas Podraza, Dr. (Committee Member)
Yanfa Yan, Dr. (Committee Member)
Sanjay Khare, Dr. (Committee Member)
Stephen O'Leary, Dr. (Committee Member)
396 p.
Physics
CdTe Photovoltaics, CdTe Metrology, Spectroscopic Ellipsometry, QE Simulation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Koirala, P. (2015). Multichannel Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for CdTe Photovoltaics: from Materials and Interfaces to Solar Cells [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430488231

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Koirala, Prakash. Multichannel Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for CdTe Photovoltaics: from Materials and Interfaces to Solar Cells. 2015. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430488231.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Koirala, Prakash. "Multichannel Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for CdTe Photovoltaics: from Materials and Interfaces to Solar Cells." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430488231

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1430488231
362
© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Multichannel Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for CdTe Photovoltaics: from Materials and Interfaces to Solar Cells by Prakash Koirala is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.