Preparation and Properties of Evaporated CdTe and All Thin Film CdTe/CdS Solar Cells

Cadmium telluride thin films were prepared by vacuum evaporation of CdTe powder in an attempt to fabricate all thin film solar cells of the type CdTe/CdS. Characterization of CdTe has shown it to have a band gap of 1.522eV and a resistivity of 22Ω-cm. As prepared, solar cells exhibited low values of output parameters. Given quantity of copper was then deposited on top of the CdTe/CdS solar cells and the whole system was annealed at 350°C. This copper doping changed the output parameters favorably with a maximum efficiency of 1.9%.