Direct evidence for grain-boundary depletion in polycrystalline CdTe from nanoscale-resolved measurements
- 27 January 2003
- journal article
- conference paper
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 82 (4), 556-558
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1542926
Abstract
We use scanning probe microscopy-based methods for direct characterization of a single grain boundary and a single grain surface in solar cell-quality CdTe, deposited by closed-space vapor transport. We find that scanning capacitance microscopy can serve to study polycrystalline electronic materials, notwithstanding the strong topographical variations. In this way, we find a barrier for hole transport across grain boundaries, a conclusion supported by the much more topography-sensitive scanning kelvin probe microscopy, with some variation in barrier height between different boundaries.Keywords
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