Abstract
Conference Title: 2013 IEEE 39th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) Conference Start Date: 2013, June 16 Conference End Date: 2013, June 21 Conference Location: Tampa, FL, USA In this paper, we have investigated the effects of transition metal dichalcogenide namely Molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) layer formation in between Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) absorber layer and Mo back contact from numerical modeling. The main purpose was to investigate the possible effects of p-type MoTe2 in CdTe thin film solar cell. Energy band line-up in the vicinity of Mo/MoTe2/CdTe interface is investigated to explain the interface properties in terms of various parameters. It was found that p-type MoTe2 has some effects to the performance of CdTe thin film solar cells. Thickness, bandgap energy and carrier concentration of p-MoTe2 all have been varied in the numerical simulation to observe its effects on the cell performance. It was found that when thickness of MoTe2 is less than 20 nm, the cell efficiency decreases, which may be due to the shunting caused by the thinner p-MoTe2. Furthermore, the increase in MoTe2 bandgap results in unfavorable effect to the performance of the cell mainly due to the possibility of electrons to drift towards the back contact and recombination. The increase of the carrier concentration improves the cell performance. This could be attributed to the less recombination of electrons as well as less built in potential (Vbi) at MoTe2/CdTe junction. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]