Molecular adsorption-mediated control over the electrical characteristics of polycrystalline CdTe/CdS solar cells

Iris Visoly-Fisher, Amit Sitt, Melina Wahab, David Cahen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)277-285
Number of pages9
JournalChemPhysChem
Volume6
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Adsorption
  • Molecular devices
  • Monolayers
  • Semiconductors
  • Solar cells

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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