Revolutionary novel and low cost CMBD method for fabrication of CdTe absorber layer for use in thin film solar cells

We developed revolutionary novel and low cost and non-vacuum chemical molecular beam deposition method for fabrication of thin film II–VI solar cells in the atmospheric pressure gas (He, Ar and H2) flow. High quality polycrystalline CdTe films with different compositions (stoichiometric and Cd/Te ⩽1·0 and Cd/Te ⩾1·0) and thickness of 2–3 μm were fabricated on ceramic (SiO2–Al2O3) substrates at a temperature of 600°C. Separate sources of Cd and Te with respective purities of 99·999% were used as precursors. The growth rate was varied in the range of 9–30 A s−1. The effects of the composition and CdCl2 treatment on the structure, intrinsic point defects and electrical properties of CdTe films were investigated by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectra, photoluminescence and Hall methods.