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CADMIUM TELLURIDE PHOTOVOLTAICS

Selenium lowers bulk recombination

Selenium alloying has enabled record efficiency for CdTe solar cells by changing the optoelectronic properties of the CdTe absorber layer, though its role has not yet been fully understood. Now, non-radiative charge-carrier recombination in the bulk of the CdSeTe layer is revealed to be lower in grains with higher Se concentration.

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Fig. 1: Device structure and recombination process.

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Correspondence to Dmitry Krasikov.

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D.K. is the development engineer in the advanced research division at First Solar, Inc., which is a PV manufacturer and a utility-scale PV power-plants provider.

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Krasikov, D. Selenium lowers bulk recombination. Nat Energy 4, 442–443 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0393-3

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