The Role of Surface Recombination Velocity on the Efficiency of CdS/CdTe Thin Film Solar Cell

Hamid Fardi University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, United States

The effect of carrier surface recombination velocity at the Schottky barrier formed at back contact of a TCO/CdS/CdTe solar cell is investigated. Simulation analysis is used to optimize an experimental base device under AM1.5 solar spectrum.  The photocurrent characteristic of the optimized cell shows an efficiency of 19.83 %, an open circuit voltage of 917.6 mV and a short circuit current density of 28.45 mA/cm2. Our results show that lower surface recombination velocity of 10,000 cm/s  will reduce open circuit voltage to about 0.73 V but the short circuit current remains relatively unaffected for the device modeled.