Material Requirements for CdSe Wide Bandgap Solar Cells

Little work has been done understanding and implementing CdSe as a solar cell absorber, despite its ideal bandgap for the absorber of a top subcell in tandem solar cell configuration. With similar thermodynamic properties to CdTe as well as demonstrated low cost, high volume depositions in the manufacturing of CdTe photovoltaic (PV) devices, CdSe is expected to be a robust and reliable material for commercial PV if high-quality materials can be fabricated. In this work, optical and electrical simulations are used to determine key material conditions required to achieve high power conversion efficiency CdSe solar cells.