Growth and characterization of CdS buffer layers by CBD and MOCVD
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 (United States)
- Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 (United States)
Thin film CdS has been widely used in thin-film photovoltaic devices. The most efficient Cu(In,&hthinsp;Ga)Se{sub 2} (CIGS) solar cells reported to date utilized a thin CdS buffer layer prepared by a reactive solution growth technique known as chemical bath deposition (CBD). Considerable effort has been directed to better understand the role and find a replacement for the CBD CdS process in CIGS-based solar cells. We reported a low temperature ({approximately}150&hthinsp;{degree}C) Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) CdS thin film buffer layer process for CIGS absorbers. Many prior studies have reported that CBD CdS contains a mixture of crystal structures. Recent investigations of CBD CdS thin films by ellipsometry suggested a multilayer structure. In this study we compare CdS thin films prepared by CBD and MOCVD and the effects of annealing. TED and XRD are used to characterize the crystal structure, the film microstructure is studied by HRTEM, and the optical properties are studied by Raman and spectrophotometry. All of these characterization techniques reveal superior crystalline film quality for CdS films grown by MOCVD compared to those grown by CBD. Dual Beam Optical Modulation (DBOM) studies showed that the MOCVD and CBD CdS buffer layer processes have nearly the same effect on CIGS absorbers when combined with a cadmium partial electrolyte aqueous dip. {copyright} {ital 1999 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 357193
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980935-; ISSN 0094-243X; TRN: 9915M0019
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 462, Issue 1; Conference: 15. National Center for Photovoltaics program review conference, Denver, CO (United States), 9-11 Sep 1998; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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