Enriched semiconducting single wall nanotubes as back contact for CdTe solar cell

Abstract

For CdS/CdTe solar cells with conventional Cu doped CdTe at the back contact, the diffusion of copper into CdS window layer is detrimental to the solar cell performance. In order to obviate this problem, single wall carbon nanotube thin films with enriched semiconducting ratio (95% S-SWNT) are applied to the CdS/CdTe device and their suitability as back contact materials are studied. We achieve solar cells with power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ~9.71% device using SWNT/Au back contact. Furthermore, the device with SWNT/Au electrode shows higher thermal stability when compared to devices with Cu/Au electrodes.