Abstract
Sintered CdS films on glass substrate with low electrical resistivity and high optical transmittance have been prepared by coating and sintering method. All-polycrystalline CdS/CdTe solar cells with different microstructure and properties of CdTe layer were fabricated by coating a number of CdTe slurries, which consisted of Cd and Te powders, an appropriate amount of propylene glycol and 2 or 7.5 w/o $CdC1_2$, on the sintered CdS films and by sintering the glass-CdS-(Cd+Te) composites at various temperature. To explore the dependence of the solar efficiency on the preparation conditions of the CdTe layer, Cd powder with an average particle size of $0.3{\mu}m$ or $5{\mu}m$ was prepared. The use of Cd with finer particles forms more dense or uniform microstructure of the nuclear of CdTe during the heating. Therefore the use of Cd with finer particles improves the efficiency of the sintered CdS/CdTe solar cell by improving the microstructure of sintered CdTe layer. But the difference of solar efficiency by varing a particle size of Cd is decreased with increasing amount of $CdC1_2$ in the (Cd+Te) layer. All-polycrystalline CdS/CdTe solar cells with an efficiency of 10.2% under solar irradiation have been fabricated using a Cd with finer particles.