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Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells

Luksa Kujovic Orcid Logo, Xiaolei Liu, Zhaoxia Zhou, Stuart Robertson, Ali Abbas, Mustafa Togay Orcid Logo, Samuel E Machin, Jacques Kenyon, Zeyad Elsayed Orcid Logo, Kieran M Curson, Ciaran Llewelyn Orcid Logo, Dan Lamb Orcid Logo, Stuart Irvine, Wei Zhang, Chungho Lee, Timothy Nagle, Dingyuan Lu, Gang Xiong Orcid Logo, Jake W Bowers Orcid Logo, John M Walls

Journal of Physics: Energy, Volume: 8, Issue: 2, Start page: 025017

Swansea University Authors: Ciaran Llewelyn Orcid Logo, Dan Lamb Orcid Logo, Stuart Irvine

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DOI (Published version): 10.1088/2515-7655/ae7760

Abstract

Incorporating ZnO as a buffer layer in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells leads to high conversion efficiencies. However, the sub-optimal band alignment at the ZnO/CdSeTe interface limits the Voc. In this study, Ce is used to alloy the ZnO buffer layer to widen the band gap and improve band alignment...

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Published in: Journal of Physics: Energy
ISSN: 2515-7655
Published: IOP Publishing 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa72181
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spelling v2 72181 2026-06-29 Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells 91e58657b172ff1c49c86599dd049d72 0009-0005-4074-5204 Ciaran Llewelyn Ciaran Llewelyn true false decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0 0000-0002-4762-4641 Dan Lamb Dan Lamb true false 1ddb966eccef99aa96e87f1ea4917f1f Stuart Irvine Stuart Irvine true false 2026-06-29 BGPS Incorporating ZnO as a buffer layer in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells leads to high conversion efficiencies. However, the sub-optimal band alignment at the ZnO/CdSeTe interface limits the Voc. In this study, Ce is used to alloy the ZnO buffer layer to widen the band gap and improve band alignment, leading to an increase in Jsc and Voc. The 50 nm and 100 nm thick ZnO and CeZnO buffer layers are deposited on SnO 2:F coated soda-lime glass using radio frequency sputtering. To study the effect of Ce alloying, the Ce atomic percent is varied from 3% to 9%. The buffer layers are fabricated into As-doped CdSeTe/CdTe devices using First Solar’s process. The device incorporating the 3% CeZnO buffer layer leads to the highest efficiency and Voc. However, the saturation current density and ideality factor are observed to increase as the Ce content increases, suggesting that Ce alloying degrades the quality of the front p–n junction. The interface defect density is estimated using C– V and DLCP profiling, the interface defect density is observed to increase significantly when incorporating more than 3% Ce. There is an apparent trade-off between front interface passivation and band alignment. Journal Article Journal of Physics: Energy 8 2 025017 IOP Publishing 2515-7655 CeO2, ZnO, CeZnO, buffer layer, CdSeTe/CdTe solar cell, band alignment 29 6 2026 2026-06-29 10.1088/2515-7655/ae7760 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee UKRI and EPSRC (EP/W00092X/1 and EP/W000555/1); EPSRC Supergen SuperSolar Network+. 2026-06-29T09:52:38.8442031 2026-06-29T09:41:21.6013212 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Materials Science and Engineering Luksa Kujovic 0009-0009-3980-1933 1 Xiaolei Liu 2 Zhaoxia Zhou 3 Stuart Robertson 4 Ali Abbas 5 Mustafa Togay 0000-0001-5840-2158 6 Samuel E Machin 7 Jacques Kenyon 8 Zeyad Elsayed 0000-0002-2797-3043 9 Kieran M Curson 10 Ciaran Llewelyn 0009-0005-4074-5204 11 Dan Lamb 0000-0002-4762-4641 12 Stuart Irvine 13 Wei Zhang 14 Chungho Lee 15 Timothy Nagle 16 Dingyuan Lu 17 Gang Xiong 0000-0002-4601-0277 18 Jake W Bowers 0000-0001-7632-1140 19 John M Walls 20 72181__37069__094908b7088c4b56abbda4ba9d9ab9c5.pdf 72181.VOR.pdf 2026-06-29T09:47:42.6797270 Output 6903801 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 The Author(s). Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells
spellingShingle Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells
Ciaran Llewelyn
Dan Lamb
Stuart Irvine
title_short Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells
title_full Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells
title_fullStr Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells
title_full_unstemmed Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells
title_sort Improved Voc using Ce-alloyed ZnO buffer layers in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells
author_id_str_mv 91e58657b172ff1c49c86599dd049d72
decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0
1ddb966eccef99aa96e87f1ea4917f1f
author_id_fullname_str_mv 91e58657b172ff1c49c86599dd049d72_***_Ciaran Llewelyn
decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0_***_Dan Lamb
1ddb966eccef99aa96e87f1ea4917f1f_***_Stuart Irvine
author Ciaran Llewelyn
Dan Lamb
Stuart Irvine
author2 Luksa Kujovic
Xiaolei Liu
Zhaoxia Zhou
Stuart Robertson
Ali Abbas
Mustafa Togay
Samuel E Machin
Jacques Kenyon
Zeyad Elsayed
Kieran M Curson
Ciaran Llewelyn
Dan Lamb
Stuart Irvine
Wei Zhang
Chungho Lee
Timothy Nagle
Dingyuan Lu
Gang Xiong
Jake W Bowers
John M Walls
format Journal article
container_title Journal of Physics: Energy
container_volume 8
container_issue 2
container_start_page 025017
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 2515-7655
doi_str_mv 10.1088/2515-7655/ae7760
publisher IOP Publishing
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Materials Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Materials Science and Engineering
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Incorporating ZnO as a buffer layer in thin film CdSeTe/CdTe solar cells leads to high conversion efficiencies. However, the sub-optimal band alignment at the ZnO/CdSeTe interface limits the Voc. In this study, Ce is used to alloy the ZnO buffer layer to widen the band gap and improve band alignment, leading to an increase in Jsc and Voc. The 50 nm and 100 nm thick ZnO and CeZnO buffer layers are deposited on SnO 2:F coated soda-lime glass using radio frequency sputtering. To study the effect of Ce alloying, the Ce atomic percent is varied from 3% to 9%. The buffer layers are fabricated into As-doped CdSeTe/CdTe devices using First Solar’s process. The device incorporating the 3% CeZnO buffer layer leads to the highest efficiency and Voc. However, the saturation current density and ideality factor are observed to increase as the Ce content increases, suggesting that Ce alloying degrades the quality of the front p–n junction. The interface defect density is estimated using C– V and DLCP profiling, the interface defect density is observed to increase significantly when incorporating more than 3% Ce. There is an apparent trade-off between front interface passivation and band alignment.
published_date 2026-06-29T09:52:41Z
_version_ 1869320721758420992
score 11.110583

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