Ultrathin CdTe Solar Cells with MoO^sub 3-x^/Au Back Contacts

Issue Title: 2013 U.S. Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials. Guest Editors: S. Sivananthan and N. K. Dhar We report on the fabrication and characterization of CdTe thin-film solar cells with Cu-free MoO^sub 3-x^/Au back contacts. CdTe solar cells with sputtered CdTe absorbers of thicknesses from 0.5 to 1.75 [mu]m were fabricated on Pilkington SnO2:F/SnO2-coated soda-lime glasses coated with a 60- to 80-nm sputtered CdS layer. The MoO^sub 3-x^/Au back contact layers were deposited by thermal evaporation. The incorporation of MoO^sub 3-x^ layer was found to improve the open circuit voltage (V ^sub OC^) but reduce the fill factor of the ultrathin CdTe cells. The V ^sub OC^ was found to increase as the CdTe thickness increased.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]