In this paper, interface engineering via sputtering of CdO nanolayer at the buffer-CdS/CdTe-absorber interface is demonstrated as an efficient approach to improve the performance of solar cell device. The i-CdO interfacial layer with various thicknesses from 5 nm to 35 nm was deposited by DC magnetron sputtering. Comparative studies on TCO/CdS/CdTe and TCO/CdS/CdO/CdTe interfaces have been conducted by current-voltage, capacitance-voltage and admittance spectroscopy measurements. The current-voltage characteristics of the devices with an area of 0.45 cm2 under 100 mW/cm2 illumination, at the optimum thickness of CdO intermediate layer in the proposed structures, show increases of the short circuit current density and the open circuit voltage by 5% and 25%, respectively. The efficiency improvement of 3.1% of p-i-n cell over p-n cell is observed. Results of the temperature-dependent current-voltage and admittance measurements revealed the removing of the deep level defect with the activation energy of 0.43 eV and the reducing of the ideality factor from 1.9 to 1.8 via buffer/absorber interfacial passivation method. Interface passivation appears to be critical to improve the short circuit current density and the open circuit voltage, and CdO thin film is clearly effective for this purpose.
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