Cadmium Zinc Telluride as an Electron Reflecting Back-Contact Layer for CdTe Solar Cells

Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe) with a 1.7 eV band gap was deposited at the back of thin CdTe-absorber devices to reduce back surface recombination and increase voltage. In these experiments we studied the effects CdZnTe thickness and substrate temperature during deposition have on device performance. In these experiments we show an efficiency increase of 2.4% above devices made without including CdZnTe. Furthermore, Photoluminescence data shows an order of magnitude increase after the deposition of CdZnTe, showing an increase in surface quality.