Post-growth Recrystallization by Halides for High Throughput CIGS Photovoltaics

Technical Report · Fri Mar 31 04:00:00 EDT 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2217674· OSTI ID:2217674

Rockett, Angus ^[1]; Marsillac, Sylvain ^[2]

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1. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines
2. Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA (United States)

The objective of this project in broad terms was to address the capital equipment expense associated with Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) as a material for photovoltaic devices. This project has demonstrated a new method for processing CIGS using metal halides to recrystallize and enhance the quality of the final materials. A wide spectrum of metal halides were examined. Of these Cu and In chlorides and AgBr were found to be most effective; and, of these, AgBr was found to produce exemplary results. Cu and In chlorides were found to produce undesirable changes in film composition. The project demonstrated over 16% efficiency in a CIGS device deposited at 10x the standard rate of ~1 μm/hr and with a >100°C reduction in maximum temperature to 450°C. The entire deposition of the absorber layer including the recrystallization step required only 15 minutes, which is a 4x decrease in processing time.

• Research Organization: Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: EE0007551
• OSTI ID: 2217674
• Report Number(s): DOE-CSM--EE0007551-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
CIGS
Photovoltaics
Recrystallization