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Title: How Does CIGS Performance Depend on Temperature at the Microscale?

Journal Article · · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [1]
  1. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States). Defect Lab., School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
  2. MiaSole Hi-Tech Corp., Santa Clara, CA (United States)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
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Unveiling the correlation among electrical performance, elemental distribution, and defects at the microscale is crucial for the understanding and improvement of the overall solar cell performance. While this is true in general for solar cells with polycrystalline absorber layers, it is particularly critical for defect engineering of the complex quaternary CuInxGa1-xSe2 (CIGS) material system. Studying these relationships under standard ambient conditions can provide important insights but does not provide input on the behavior of the cell under real operating conditions. In this contribution, we take a close look at the complex temperature dependence of defects and voltage in CIGS at the microscale. We have developed correlative X-raymicroscopymethods and adapted them for temperature-dependent measurements of the locally generated voltage and elemental compositions at the microscale. We have applied these techniques to industrial CIGS solar cells covering temperatures from room temperature up to 100 degrees C. Finally, we find underperforming areas spanning multiple grains that do not correlate with the elemental distribution of major absorber constituents. However, we demonstrate that low-performing areas perform better at higher temperatures relative to the high-performing areas.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; EE0005948
OSTI ID:
1438257
Journal Information:
IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 8, Issue 1; ISSN 2156-3381
Publisher:
IEEECopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Cited By (7)

X‐Ray Microscopy of Halide Perovskites: Techniques, Applications, and Prospects journal January 2020
Challenges and Opportunities with Highly Brilliant X-ray Sources for multi-Modal in-Situ and Operando Characterization of Solar Cells journal August 2018
Multimodal X-ray imaging of grain-level properties and performance in a polycrystalline solar cell text January 2019
Defect activation and annihilation in CIGS solar cells: an operando X-ray microscopy study text January 2020
Defect activation and annihilation in CIGS solar cells: an operando x-ray microscopy study journal February 2020
Multimodal X-ray imaging of grain-level properties and performance in a polycrystalline solar cell journal May 2019
Challenges and Opportunities with Highly Brilliant X-ray Sources for multi-Modal in-Situ and Operando Characterization of Solar Cells text January 2018

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Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
X-ray beam induced voltage (XBIV)
microscale
Beam damage
CuInxGa1-xSe2 (CIGS)
solar cells