Hierarchical Transparent Back Contacts for Bifacial CdTe PV

B Edward Sartor; Teng Zhang; Christopher P Muzzillo; Chungho Lee; Ryan Muzzio; Yury Gogotsi; Matthew O Reese; André D Taylor

doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.4c00156

Hierarchical Transparent Back Contacts for Bifacial CdTe PV

ACS Energy Lett. 2024 Mar 20;9(4):1617-1623. doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.4c00156. eCollection 2024 Apr 12.

Authors

B Edward Sartor^{1

2}, Teng Zhang³, Christopher P Muzzillo², Chungho Lee⁴, Ryan Muzzio², Yury Gogotsi³, Matthew O Reese², André D Taylor¹

Affiliations

¹ New York University, Brooklyn, New York 11201, United States.
² National Renewable Energy Lab, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States.
³ A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States.
⁴ First Solar, Santa Clara, California 95050, United States.

Abstract

A hierarchical transparent back contact leveraging an AlGaO_x passivating layer, Ti₃C₂T_x MXene with a high work function, and a transparent cracked film lithography (CFL) templated nanogrid is demonstrated on copper-free cadmium telluride (CdTe) devices. AlGaO_x improves device open-circuit voltage but reduces the fill factor when using a CFL-templated metal contact. Including a Ti₃C₂T_x interlayer improves the fill factor, lowers detrimental Schottky barriers, and enables metallization with CFL by providing transverse conduction into the nanogrid. The bifacial performance of an AlGaO_x/Ti₃C₂T_x/CFL gold contact is evaluated, reaching 19.5% frontside efficiency and 2.8% backside efficiency under 1-sun illumination for a copper-free, group-V doped CdTe device. Under dual illumination, device power generation reached 200 W/m² with 0.1 sun backside illumination.