Graphitic carbon/n-CdTe Schottky-type heterojunction solar cells prepared by electron-beam evaporation

Abstract We report on the analysis of the electrical and photoelectrical properties of graphitic carbon/n-CdTe Schottky-type heterojunction solar cells, which have been prepared by the deposition of transparent graphitic carbon films of nanometer thickness onto freshly cleaved n-CdTe substrates by the electron-beam evaporation technique. The presence of the electrically-active interface states at the heterojunction interface was revealed from the analysis of the dominating current transport at forward and reverse bias and from the capacitance–voltage characteristics. The unoptimized graphitic carbon/n-CdTe Schottky-type heterojunctions possess a rectification ratio of RR  = 1390 and produce a maximum short circuit current density of J sc  = 8.47 mA cm −2 , an open-circuit voltage of V oc  = 0.435 V and fill factor of FF  = 0.37 under standard illumination conditions (100 mW cm −2 AM 1.5).

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