Electron-Selective TiO2 Contact for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu (Taiwan). Green Energy & Environment Research Laboratorie
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division
- Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu (Taiwan). Green Energy & Environment Research Laboratorie
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
The non-toxic and wide bandgap material TiO 2 is explored as an n-type buffer layer on p-type Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) absorber layer for thin film solar cells. The amorphous TiO 2 thin film deposited by atomic layer deposition process at low temperatures shows conformal coverage on the CIGS absorber layer. Solar cells from non-vacuum deposited CIGS absorbers with TiO 2 buffer layer result in a high short-circuit current density of 38.9 mA/cm 2 as compared to 36.9 mA/cm 2 measured in the reference cell with CdS buffer layer, without compromising open-circuit voltage. The significant photocurrent gain, mainly in the UV part of the spectrum, can be attributed to the low parasitic absorption loss in the ultrathin TiO2 layer (~10 nm) with a larger bandgap of 3.4 eV compared to 2.4 eV of the traditionally used CdS. Overall the solar cell conversion efficiency was improved from 9.5% to 9.9% by substituting the CdS by TiO2 on an active cell area of 10.5 mm 2. Optimized TiO2 /CIGS solar cells show excellent long-term stability. The results imply that TiO2 is a promising buffer layer material for CIGS solar cells, avoiding the toxic CdS buffer layer with added performance advantage.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 1256061
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1378631
- Journal Information:
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 5; ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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