A thin film solar cell based on the CuIn{sub 3}Se{sub 5} ordered vacancy compound

Book · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:208081

Menezes, S ^[1]; Kessler, J ^[2]; Schmid, D; Schock, H W ^[3]; Nelson, A; Matson, R J ^[4]

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1. Interphases Research, Thousand Oaks, CA (United States)
2. Solarex, Newtown, PA (United States)
3. Univ. Stuttgart (Germany). Inst. fuer Physikalische Electronik
4. National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)

The special attributes of the CuIn{sub 3}Se{sub 5} material are exploited for an absorber layer in a new thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cell. Cu{sub X}In{sub Y}Se{sub Z} thin films with x {approximately} 11% are synthesized by co-evaporation or sequential evaporation. An electrochemical approach, first developed for CuInSe{sub 2}, is employed to construct an n-CuIn{sub 3}Se{sub 5}/p-CuISe{sub 3} heterojunction. This approach leads to a remarkably uniform, clean np-heterointerface and a rough surface conducive to light trapping. EPMA, SIMS profiles and XRD analysis examine the CuIn{sub 3}Se{sub 5} films and the CuISe{sub 3} overlayer. EBIC and I-V analysis investigate the formation of an electrically active n-CuIn{sub 3}Se{sub 5}/p-CuISe{sub 3} junction.

• OSTI ID: 208081
• Report Number(s): CONF-941203--; ISBN 0-7803-1459-X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANTIREFLECTION COATINGS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
COPPER IODIDES
COPPER SELENIDE SOLAR CELLS
COPPER SELENIDES
EVAPORATION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FABRICATION
HETEROJUNCTIONS
INDIUM SELENIDE SOLAR CELLS
INDIUM SELENIDES
ION MICROPROBE ANALYSIS
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
PERFORMANCE
SELENIUM IODIDES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION