This paper reviews the strengths and advantages of electrodeposition as a low-cost and large-area semiconductor growth technique for applications in macroelectronic devices such as solar panels and large-area display devices. To highlight its strengths, experimental evidence obtained from X-ray diffracton and photoluminescence is presented. It has been shown that when materials are grown with the right conditions, electrodeposition is capable of producing high-quality materials for electronic device applications. The paper also summarizes the new science and new solar cell designs emanating from the research on electrodeposited electronic materials and solar cell devices. The new designs have been tested with well-researched III-V materials, GaAs and , and the device performances show a drastic improvement in device parameters ( and ). These new designs have also been tested using electrodeposited materials, with encouraging preliminary results which are also presented and discussed.

Cadmium chloride treatment is a key processing step identified in the late 1970s to drastically improve the solar to electric conversion efficiency of CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells. Although a large body of experimental results are available to date, this process is yet to be understood even after three decades of research. This paper reviews the experimental results available, presents some new clues leading to improved understanding and suggests key research areas necessary to fully understand this crucial processing step. Improved understanding will lead to further increase in conversion efficiency of CdS/CdTe solar cells well beyond 20%.

Thin film solar cells based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) are complex devices which have great potential for achieving high conversion efficiencies. Lack of understanding in materials issues and device physics slows down the rapid progress of these devices. This paper combines relevant results from the literature with new results from a research programme based on electro-plated CdS and CdTe. A wide range of analytical techniques was used to investigate the materials and device structures. It has been experimentally found that n-, i- and p-type CdTe can be grown easily by electroplating. These material layers consist of nano- and micro-rod type or columnar type grains, growing normal to the substrate. Stoichiometric materials exhibit the highest crystallinity and resistivity, and layers grown closer to these conditions show n → p or p → n conversion upon heat treatment. The general trend of CdCl₂ treatment is to gradually change the CdTe material’s n-type electrical property towards i-type or p-type conduction. This work also identifies a rapid structural transition of CdTe layer at 385 ± 5 °C and a slow structural transition at higher temperatures when annealed or grown at high temperature. The second transition occurs after 430 °C and requires more work to understand this gradual transition. This work also identifies the existence of two different solar cell configurations for CdS/CdTe which creates a complex situation. Finally, the paper presents the way forward with next generation CdTe-based solar cells utilising low-cost materials in their columnar nature in graded bandgap structures. These devices could absorb UV, visible and IR radiation from the solar spectrum and combine impact ionisation and impurity photovoltaic (PV) effect as well as making use of IR photons from the surroundings when fully optimised.

CdCl₂ treatment is a crucial step in development of CdS/CdTe solar cells. Although this processing step has been used over a period of three decades, full understanding is not yet achieved. This paper reports the experimental evidence for improvement of composition of CdTe layers during CdCl₂ treatment. This investigation makes use of four selected analytical techniques; Photo-electro-chemical (PEC) cell, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). CdTe layers used were electroplated using three Cd precursors; CdSO₄, Cd(NO₃)₂ and CdCl₂. Results show the improvement of stoichiometry of CdTe layers during CdCl₂ treatment through chemical reaction between Cd from CdCl₂ and elemental Te that usually precipitate during CdTe growth, due to its natural behaviour. XRD and SEM results show that the low-temperature (~85 °C) electroplated CdTe layers consist of ~(20–60) nm size crystallites, but after CdCl₂ treatment, the layers show drastic recrystallisation with grains becoming a few microns in size. These CdCl₂ treated layers are then comparable to high temperature grown CdTe layers by the size of grains.

A 3-layer graded-bandgap solar cell with glass/FTO/ZnS/CdS/CdTe/Au structure has been fabricated using all-electrodeposited ZnS, CdS and CdTe thin layers. The three semiconductor layers were electrodeposited using a two-electrode system for process simplification. The incorporation of a wide bandgap amorphous ZnS as a buffer/window layer to form glass/FTO/ZnS/CdS/CdTe/Au solar cell resulted in the formation of this 3-layer graded-bandgap device structure. This has yielded corresponding improvement in all the solar cell parameters resulting in a conversion efficiency >10% under AM1.5 illumination conditions at room temperature, compared to the 8.0% efficiency of a 2-layer glass/FTO/CdS/CdTe/Au reference solar cell structure. These results demonstrate the advantages of the multi-layer graded-bandgap device architecture over the conventional 2-layer structure. In addition, they demonstrate the effective application of the two-electrode system as a simplification to the conventional three-electrode system in the electrodeposition of semiconductors with the elimination of the reference electrode as a possible impurity source.

This review paper summarises the key issues of CdTe and CdS/CdTe solar cells as observed over the past four decades, and focuses on two growth techniques, electrodeposition (ED) and closed space sublimation (CSS), which have successfully passed through the commercialisation process. Comprehensive experience in electrical contacts to CdTe, surfaces & interfaces, electroplated CdTe and solar cell development work led to the design and experimentally test grading of band gap multilayer solar cells, which has been applied to the CdS/CdTe structure. This paper presents the consistent and reproducible results learned through electroplated CdTe and devices, and suggestions are made for achieving or surpassing the record efficiency of 22.1% using the CSS material growth technique.