Modeling and Design of a Thin-Film CdTe/Ge Tandem Solar Cell

Thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells have found widespread application, with current commercially available module efficiencies reaching 14.4% and production costs falling as low as \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$ \hbox{US}\,\$0.75/W_{\rm p}$$\end{document}. Despite the proliferation of this technology, there have been comparatively few developments in research circles in recent years. Rather than attempt to further advance the materials science of CdTe solar cells, it is proposed to realize an efficiency improvement over conventional cells by means of a novel tandem structure. Three such structures are examined herein, and results of simulation using Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD are presented.