Enhancing the efficiency of CdTe solar cells using a nanocrystalline iron pyrite film as an interface layer

We use thin film nanocrystalline (NC) iron pyrite as an interface layer at the back contact of CdS/CdTe solar cells. In both spattered and CSS deposited CdTe devices, improvements in V
_oc
and FF were obtained after the inclusion of the NC FeS
₂
layer. Repeated tests show that Voc increases by >30 mV and FF increases by ~3.5% for a standard CdTe device having efficiency of ~13%. The devices tested at STC show a relative increase in the power conversion efficiency in the range of 5% to 9%.