In this paper we present an evaporation concept which enables access to very low substrate temperatures for the fabrication of CdTe solar cells at promising solar cell efficiencies. CdTe layers were deposited at substrate temperatures of 300 degrees C to 190 degrees C and processed to solar cells with efficiencies of about 12% and 9%, respectively. A further reduction of the substrate temperature abruptly results in non-working solar cells. That effect is discussed in terms of the morphology of the absorber layers. The corresponding solar cell characteristics are compared to cells which were prepared by the conventional close space sublimation method. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.