Chalcogenide Photovoltaic Solar Cells of Special Interest

A brief review is given of those semiconducting selenides and tellurides that appear suitable for the absorber layer of a photovoltaic solar cell, with energy gaps in the range 1 to 2 eV. Furthermore, to obtain a lower cost cell, the semiconductor is also required to be used in the form of a thin polycrystalline film, necessitating a high optical absorption coefficient in the material. At the present time the two best chalcogenides meeting these requirements are the compounds CuInSe 2 and CdTe, both of which have been used in polycrystalline thin film structures with CdS, as the window layer, yielding conversion efficiencies of over 10%. They have also demonstrated very good chemical stability.