Analysis of CdTe photovoltaic cells for ambient light energy harvesting
Mathews, Ian; Kantareddy, Sai Nithin Reddy; Liu, Zhe; Munshi, Amit; Barth, Kurt; Sampath, Walajabad; Buonassisi, Tonio; Peters, Ian Marius
Date:
2020-07-17
Copyright:
© 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd. This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ab94e6. As the Version of Record of this article has been published on a subscription basis, this Accepted Manuscript will be available for reuse under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence after a 12 month embargo period.
Full text restriction information:
Access to this article is restricted until 12 months after publication by request of the publisher.
Restriction lift date:
2021-07-17
Citation:
Mathews, I., Kantareddy, S.N. R., Liu, Z., Munshi, A., Barth, K., Sampath, W., Buonassisi, T. and Peters, I. M. (2020) 'Analysis of CdTe photovoltaic cells for ambient light energy harvesting', Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 53(40), 405501 (7pp). doi: 10.1088/1361-6463/ab94e6
Abstract:
This paper investigates the suitability of CdTe photovoltaic cells to be used as power sources for wireless sensors located in buildings. We fabricate and test a CdTe photovoltaic cell with a transparent conducting oxide front contact that provides for high photocurrents and low series resistance at low light intensities and measures the photovoltaic response of this cell across five orders of magnitude of AM1.5G light intensity. Efficiencies of 10% and 17.1% are measured under ~1 W m-2 AM1.5G and LED irradiance respectively, the highest values for a CdTe device under ambient lighting measured to date. We use our results to assess the potential of CdTe for internet of things devices from an optoelectronic, as well as a techno-economic perspective, considering its established manufacturing know-how, potential for low-cost, proven long-term stability and issues around the use of cadmium.
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