Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-8gtf8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-14T12:03:03.165Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of Na on The Growth of Cu(In, Ga)Se2 Thin Films and Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

D. Rudmann ,
A.F. da Cunha ,
M. Kaelin ,
F.-J. Haug ,
H. Zogg  and
A.N. Tiwari
D. Rudmann
Affiliation:
Thin Film Physics Group, Laboratory for Solid State Physics, ETH Zürich, Technopark, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland
A.F. da Cunha
Affiliation:
Thin Film Physics Group, Laboratory for Solid State Physics, ETH Zürich, Technopark, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland Permanent address: Departamento de Física, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
M. Kaelin
Affiliation:
Thin Film Physics Group, Laboratory for Solid State Physics, ETH Zürich, Technopark, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland
F.-J. Haug
Affiliation:
Thin Film Physics Group, Laboratory for Solid State Physics, ETH Zürich, Technopark, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland
H. Zogg
Affiliation:
Thin Film Physics Group, Laboratory for Solid State Physics, ETH Zürich, Technopark, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland
A.N. Tiwari
Affiliation:
Thin Film Physics Group, Laboratory for Solid State Physics, ETH Zürich, Technopark, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland Also at Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK
Get access

Abstract

Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS) layers were grown with different vacuum evaporation recipes and the effects of sodium on the grain growth were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. A reduced grain size mainly in the lower part of films grown with the 3-stage process was observed when Na was available during growth. The growth kinetics were found to be influenced during the second stage of the process. In contrast, no clear change in grain size could be observed for CIGS layers grown with constant evaporation rates, with a bi-layer and with an ’extreme’ bi-layer process. A mechanism for the action of Na is proposed, which is based on the assumption that Na passivates CIGS grain boundaries and that this results in a surfactant effect. The mechanism explains the different influences of Na on CIGS growth for different evaporation recipes, the occurrence of reduced grain size in the 3-stage process and the surface smoothing effect observed mainly for CIGS grown with the bi-layer process.

In-diffusion of Na after CIGS growth is shown to be an alternative Na incorporation method that does not reduce the CIGS grain size. A conversion efficiency improvement from 10.4% to 14.2% was achieved due to the post-deposition treatment on CIGS absorbers grown without Na at a maximum substrate temperature of 450°C.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 763: Symposium B – Compound Semiconductor Photovoltaics , 2003 , B1.9
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1] Rockett, A., Britt, J. S., Gillespie, T., Marshall, C., Jassim, M. M. Al, Hasoon, F., Matson, R., and Basol, B., Thin Solid Films, 2000, 372, 212–217.Google Scholar
[2] Granata, J. E. and Sites, J. R. In Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference on Solar Energy Conversion, Vol. I, pp. 604–607, 1998.Google Scholar
[3] Matson, R. J., Granata, J. E., Asher, S. E., and Young, M. R. In NCPV Photovoltaics Program Review: Proceedings of the 15th conference, Vol. 462, pp. 542–549, 1998.Google Scholar
[4] Wang, H. P., Shih, I., and Champness, C. H. In Conference Record of the Twenty Eighth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 642–645, 2000.Google Scholar
[5] Niles, D. W., Ramanathan, K., Hasoon, F., Noufi, R., Tielsch, B. J., and Fulghum, J. E., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 1997, 15, 3044–3049.Google Scholar
[6] Granata, J. E., Sites, J. R., Asher, S., and Matson, R. In Conference Record of the Twenty Sixth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 387–90, 1997.Google Scholar
[7] Bodegård, M., Stolt, L., and Hedström, J. In Proceedings of the 12th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, p. 1743 ff., 1994.Google Scholar
[8] Braunger, D., Hariskos, D., Bilger, G., Rau, U., and Schock, H. W., Thin Solid Films, 2000, 361-362, 161–166.Google Scholar
[9] Probst, V., Rimmasch, J., Riedl, W., Stetter, W., Holz, J., Harms, H., Karg, F., and Schock, H. W. In Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE First World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, pp. 144–147, 1994.Google Scholar
[10] Contreras, M. A., Egaas, B., Dippo, P., Webb, J., Granata, J., Ramanathan, K., Asher, S., Swartzlander, A., and Noufi, R. In Conference Record of the Twenty Sixth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 359–362, 1997.Google Scholar
[11] Contreras, M. A., Jones, K. M., Gedvilas, L., and Matson, R. In Proceedings of the 16th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, pp. 732–735, 2000.Google Scholar
[12] Nakada, T., Ohbo, H., Fukuda, M., and Kunioka, A., Sol. En. Mater. Sol. Cells, 1997, 49, 261–267.Google Scholar
[13] Rudmann, D., Bilger, G., Kaelin, M., Haug, F.-J., Zogg, H., and Tiwari, A. N., Accepted for publication in Thin Solid Films, 2003.Google Scholar
[14] Bodegård, M., Granath, K., and Stolt, L., Thin Solid Films, 2000, 361-362, 9–16.Google Scholar
[15] Kohara, N., Negami, T., Nishitani, M., and Wada, T., Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 1995, 34, L1141–L1144.Google Scholar
[16] Rudmann, D., Kaelin, M., Haug, F.-J., Zogg, H., and Tiwari, A. N. In Paper presented at the 3rd World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 11-16 May, Osaka, Japan, 2003.Google Scholar
[17] Nishiwaki, S., Satoh, T., Hayashi, S., Hashimoto, Y., Negami, T., and Wada, T., Journal of Materials Research, 1999, 14, 4514–4520.Google Scholar
[18] Niles, D. W., Al-Jassim, M., and Ramanathan, K., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 1999, 17, 291–296.Google Scholar
[19] Park, J. S., Dong, Z., Kim, S., and Perepezko, J. H., J. Appl. Phys., 2000, 87, 3683–3690.Google Scholar
[20] Klenk, R., Walter, T., Schock, H. W., and Cahen, D., Adv. Mater., 1993, 5, 114–119.Google Scholar
[21] Tuttle, J. R., Contreras, M. A., Tennant, A., Albin, D., and Noufi, R. In Conference Record of the Twenty Third IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 415–421, 1993.Google Scholar
[22] Lyahovitskaya, V., Feldman, Y., Gartsman, K., Cohen, H., Cytermann, C., and Cahen, D., J. Appl. Phys., 2002, 91, 4205–4212.Google Scholar
[23] Wolf, D., Müller, G., Stetter, W., and Karg, F. In Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference on Solar Energy Conversion, pp. 2426–2429, 1998.Google Scholar
[24] Stanbery, B. J., Chang, C.-H., and Anderson, T. J. In Proc. of the 11th Int. Conf. on Ternary and Multinary Compounds, pp. 915–922, 1997.Google Scholar
[25] Vegt, H. A. v. d., Breeman, M., Ferrer, S., Etgens, V. H., Torrelles, X., Fajardo, P., and Vlieg, E., Phys. Rev. B, 1995, 51, 14806–14809.Google Scholar