THIN-FILM GRADED-BANDGAP CDTE SOLAR CELLS: MATERIALS, DEVICE ARCHITECTURES, CHALLENGES, AND FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR HIGH-EFFICIENCY PHOTOVOLTAICS

Engineering notes

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Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充：本站会优先为光伏效率、钙钛矿太阳能电池、储能技术、太阳能热利用、BIPV、并网技术等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) remains one of the most commercially successful thin-film photovoltaic technologies due to its near-optimal direct bandgap, high absorption coefficient, low material consumption, and compatibility with large-scale manufacturing. However, the practical efficiencies of conventional CdS/CdTe heterojunction solar cells remain below their theoretical limits due to optical, thermalisation, and recombination losses. This paper worked on the development of graded-bandgap CdTe thin-film solar cells fabricated by low-cost electrodeposition. This work focused on multi-junction graded-bandgap architectures employing CdS, CdTe, and ZnTe layers to improve photon harvesting, reduce thermalisation losses and enhance conversion efficiency. This work examined the historical development of CdTe photovoltaics, the physics of graded-bandgap solar cells, advances in electrodeposition-based fabrication, and emerging device structures incorporating CdS, CdTe, and ZnTe, and related II–VI semiconductors. Particular attention was given to impact ionization, impurity photovoltaic effects, defect engineering, and interface optimization. A comparative assessment of CdTe, crystalline silicon, CuInGaSe2 (CIGS), perovskite, and tandem solar technologies was presented. The work highlighted the potential of low-cost graded-bandgap CdTe devices as candidates for next-generation high-efficiency photovoltaic systems.

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