Patent ID: 7847187

Claim:
A photovoltaic cell comprising at least one photovoltaically active semiconductor material, wherein the at least one photovoltaicalty active semiconductor material is a p- or n-doped semiconductor material comprising a binary compound of the formula (I) or a ternary compound of the formula (II): ZnTe (I) Zn 1-x Mn x Te (II) wherein x is from 0.01 to 0.99, and wherein in the case that the photovoltaically active semiconductor material is n-doped, the n-doped semiconductor material present in the n layer has a composition corresponding to the formula (III) or (IV): ZnTe 1-2y Hal y N y (III) Zn 1-x Mn x Te 1-2y Hal y N y (IV) where x=0.01 to 0.99, y=0.01 to 0.2 and in the case that the photovoltaically active semiconductor material is p-doped, the p-doped semiconductor material present in the p layer has a composition corresponding to the formula (V) or (VI): ZnTe 1-2y Hal y N y (V) Zn 1-x Mn x Te 1-2y Hal y N y (VI) where x=0.01 to 0.99, y=0.01 to 0.2, and “Hal” in both cases corresponds to a halogen ion, and the halogen ions are selected from the group consisting of fluoride, chloride, bromide and mixtures thereof, and an energy gap of the at least one photovoltaically active semiconductor material comprises an intermediate energy gap level.