Large Area 3D Elemental Mapping of a MgZnO/CdTe Solar Cell with Correlative EBSD Measurements

Chlorine is known to have numerous effects on the electronic performance of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells, such as doping the CdTe absorber material and pacifying crystal defects. However the mechanisms by which the element improves device efficiency following the cadmium chloride treatment are still not fully understood. In this work the distributions of chlorine in a high efficiency CdTe device are tracked over large areas and in three dimensions by high resolution dynamic SIMS measurements. The results give new insights into the role of chlorine and defects on the performance of CdTe solar cells, particularly when combined with correlative backscatter diffraction measurements.