Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Degradation behavior of CIGS solar Cells: A parametric analysis

Journal Article · · Solar Energy
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States); OSTI
  2. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
  3. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States); Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)

A parametric study of the effect of bulk and interface properties on device characteristics as a function of heat and light stress under open-circuit and short-circuit conditions is developed for Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 solar cells using SCAPS-1D simulator. The variables and interdependencies modeled include: (1) conduction band offset (CBO) between buffer and absorber; (2) buffer ionized donor density; (3) CIGS shallow acceptor density; (4) CIGS deep acceptor density; (5) CIGS shallow donor density; (6) ionized acceptor concentration in the ordered vacancy compound (OVC) CIGS/buffer interface; and (7) back contact work-function. An increase in absorber shallow acceptor or a decrease in shallow donor density results in an increase in net carrier density and open-circuit voltage (VOC). Further, a decrease in VOC is observed with an increase in the deep acceptors or neutral midgap defects in the CIGS due to higher charge carrier recombination. A change of CBO from spike to cliff condition is a dominant mechanism of decreasing VOC with an interface defect density of 1012 cm-2. The minimum depletion width is found to be specifically sensitive to CBO and interface defect density. An inflection in the capacitance–voltage curves (in reverse bias) is observed with simultaneous increase in bulk deep acceptor density and shallow donor density near the back contact.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0007750
OSTI ID:
2418532
Journal Information:
Solar Energy, Journal Name: Solar Energy Journal Issue: C Vol. 260; ISSN 0038-092X
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (38)

Effects of Sodium on Polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Its Solar Cell Performance journal January 1998
Advanced Alkali Treatments for High‐Efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 Solar Cells on Flexible Substrates journal May 2019
Effects of combined heat and light soaking on device performance of Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cells with ZnS(O,OH) buffer layer : Combined heat and light-soaking effects in CIGS solar cells with ZnS(O,OH)buffer layer journal February 2013
Impact of oxygen concentration during the deposition of window layers on lowering the metastability effects in Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 /CBD Zn(S,O) based solar cell : Impact of oxygen in window layers on Cu(In,Ga)Se
  • Naghavi, Negar; Temgoua, Solange; Hildebrandt, Thibaud
  • Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 23, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2626
journal June 2015
Impact of heat-light soaking on potassium fluoride treated CIGS solar cells with CdS buffer layer journal November 2017
Impact of heat‐light soaking and heat‐bias soaking on NaF‐treated CIGS thin film solar cells journal April 2019
Decay mechanisms in CdS‐buffered Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin‐film solar cells after exposure to thermal stress: Understanding the role of Na journal May 2021
Solar cell efficiency tables (Version 60)
  • Green, Martin A.; Dunlop, Ewan D.; Hohl‐Ebinger, Jochen
  • Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 30, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3595
journal June 2022
Temperature-dependent current-voltage and lightsoaking measurements on Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cells with ALD-Zn 1-x Mg x O buffer layers journal November 2009
Tunable Carrier Concentration of NaF-Treated CIGS Solar Cells Using Heat-Light Soaking and Subsequent Heating journal March 2018
Behavior of Na and RbF‐Treated CdS/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells with Stress Testing under Heat, Light, and Junction Bias journal January 2021
Sodium co-evaporation for low temperature Cu(In,Ga)Se2 deposition journal May 2001
Modelling polycrystalline semiconductor solar cells journal February 2000
Photo current metastability in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells with controlled conduction band alignment journal March 2010
Analytical Modeling and Simulation of CIGS Solar Cells journal January 2013
Simulation of High Efficiency CIGS Solar Cells with SCAPS-1D Software journal August 2015
Optimization of the CIGS based thin film solar cells: Numerical simulation and analysis journal January 2014
Metastability of Zn1−xMgxO/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells with different conduction band offset values journal January 2009
Band-gap grading in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells journal November 2005
Understanding defect-related issues limiting efficiency of CIGS solar cells journal August 2009
Electrical characterization of CIGSe solar cells metastability with Zn(S,O,OH)–ZnMgO interface buffer layers journal November 2010
Light-induced changes in the minority carrier diffusion length of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorber material journal April 2017
Efficiency limitations for wide-band-gap chalcopyrite solar cells journal June 2005
Sodium incorporation strategies for CIGS growth at different temperatures journal June 2005
The influence of Na on metastable defect kinetics in CIGS materials journal February 2009
Investigation of the metastability behavior of CIGS based solar cells with ZnMgO–Zn(S,O,OH) window-buffer layers journal August 2011
Behavior of Photocarriers in the Light-Induced Metastable State in the p - n Heterojunction of a Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 Solar Cell with CBD-ZnS Buffer Layer journal August 2016
Phase segregation, Cu migration and junction formation in Cu(In, Ga)Se 2 journal May 1999
Secondary barriers in CdS–CuIn1−xGaxSe2 solar cells journal March 2005
Light- and bias-induced metastabilities in Cu(In,Ga)Se[sub 2] based solar cells caused by the (V[sub Se]-V[sub Cu]) vacancy complex journal January 2006
Interpretation of admittance, capacitance-voltage, and current-voltage signatures in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film solar cells journal February 2010
Band offsets and optical bowings of chalcopyrites and Zn‐based II‐VI alloys journal September 1995
Quantifying Large Lattice Relaxations in Photovoltaic Devices journal February 2020
Impact of the Band Offset for n-Zn(O,S)/p-Cu(In,Ga)Se$_{2}$ Solar Cells journal March 2014
Baseline Models for Three Types of CIGS Cells: Effects of Buffer Layer and Na Content
  • Nardone, Marco; Patikirige, Yasas; Walkons, Curtis
  • 2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC) (A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC & 34th EU PVSEC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2018.8548167
conference June 2018
Stabilization of PN Heterojunction between Cu(InGa)Se 2 Thin-Film Absorber and ZnO Window with Zn(O, S, OH) x Buffer journal May 2000
CdTe Solar Cells: Processing Limits and Defect Chemistry Effects on Open Circuit Voltage journal January 2013
Heat- and light-soaking behavior of RbF-treated Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells with two different buffer layers journal January 2022

Similar Records

Improvement of the CIGS solar cell performance: structure based on a ZnS buffer layer
Journal Article · Thu Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Optical and Quantum Electronics · OSTI ID:22950151

Voltage-Induced Charge Redistribution in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Devices Studied With High-Speed Capacitance–Voltage Profiling
Journal Article · Sun Dec 02 23:00:00 EST 2018 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics · OSTI ID:1489187