Growth improved of CIGS thin films by applying mechanical perturbations to the working electrode during the electrodeposition process Article uri icon

abstract

  • Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) is a semiconductor which has been extensively studied for photovoltaic applications. With this semiconductor, efficiencies of solar cell greater than 20%25 have been achieved by physical vapor deposition. There are different techniques to make the CIGS absorber layer. However, electrodeposition is the most adequate technique to make it for different technical and economic reasons. In this paper, the performance of CIGS solar cells are compared using different strategies to synthesize the CIGS films on Mo-coated glass substrates by one-step electrodeposition employing an electrolytic cell with horizontal electrodes. For the above, two strategies are presented, these are: (i) DC electrodeposition and (ii) DC electrodeposition plus mechanical perturbations to the working electrode during the CIGS film growth. In the as-electrodeposited CIGS film a grain growth in selenium atmosphere process was applied and photovoltaic devices were completed with CdS, ZnO and ZnO:Al layers. The photovoltaic devices that were made with the CIGS films obtained by DC electrodeposition plus mechanical perturbations exhibit better absorber morphology with respect to that where only DC electrodeposition was used. The short circuit current density obtained with the absorber synthetized only by DC electrodeposition was of 7.35 mA/cm 2 while for the absorber synthetized by DC electrodeposition plus mechanical perturbations was of 28.38 mA/cm 2 , both under 1000 W/m 2 (AM 1.5). © 2019

publication date

  • 2019-01-01