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    • Data for "Gold-Induced Chemical Perturbations in CdTe-Based Photovoltaic Cells"

    Metadata Updated: March 21, 2026

    Back contacting p-type CdTe has been identified as one of the major areas of loss in CdTe photovoltaic (PV) power conversion efficiency (PCE).  In research settings, Au is a common contact material due to its ease of use and decent performance.  This work provides a detailed investigation into using gold for back contacting As-doped, CdCl2 treated, polycrystalline CdTe that has been exposed to air after absorber processing, another routine practice. First, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) is used to determine the native oxide to be 1.6 nm of CdTeO3 using a combination of angle-resolved XPS and the cadmium modified Auger parameter.  During gold metallization of CdTe, oxygen and oxidized tellurium are eliminated from the thin CdTeO3 native oxide.  The fate of the released oxygen and possibly cadmium and tellurium are not known, but these reaction byproducts can enter the absorber bulk or grain boundaries, stay at the interface, or dissolve in the Au.  Interfacial hole barriers between CdTe and Au are measured for samples with and without the native oxide present prior to metallization. Results show that the thin CdTeO3 alleviates the downward band bending by 40 meV from 470 meV to 430 meV even though it is consumed during interface formation.  The implications of these chemical reactions on the device are assessed through photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy which shows losses in internal open circuit voltage (iVoc) from 820 meV to 795 meV, carrier lifetime from 123 ns to 45 ns, and PL quantum yield from 2.9x10-5 to 1.2x10-5.  Modeling time-resolved PL lifetimes demonstrates the back surface recombination velocity due to metallization reduces minority carrier lifetimes.  These results identify the native oxide and show that it plays an important role in mediating downward band bending along with how the back interface reaction can negatively impact device-scale parameters and reduce PV PCE. 

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: Creative Commons Attribution

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    Dates

    Metadata Created Date February 28, 2026
    Metadata Updated Date March 21, 2026

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from OpenEI data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date February 28, 2026
    Metadata Updated Date March 21, 2026
    Publisher National Laboratory of the Rockies
    Maintainer
    Identifier https://data.openei.org/submissions/8635
    Data First Published 2026-02-27T23:47:38Z
    Data Last Modified 2026-03-17T21:14:42Z
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 019:20
    Metadata Context https://openei.org/data.json
    Metadata Catalog ID https://openei.org/data.json
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Data Quality True
    Harvest Object Id 684cdff6-f90c-4174-ba4b-38c614c13fc1
    Harvest Source Id 7cbf9085-0290-4e9f-bec1-91653baeddfd
    Harvest Source Title OpenEI data.json
    Homepage URL https://data.nlr.gov/submissions/319
    License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    Program Code 019:009
    Projectnumber 37989, 52778
    Projecttitle CdTe Photovoltaics Accelerator and Consortium Management, CdTe PV Research and Development Core Project
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 5f78fe8ca4ab66fc965439f0c5a80cdaaee670346aebcf4a623d460b1bee4da5
    Source Schema Version 1.1

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