Defect chalcopyrite Cu(In{sub 1{minus}x}Ga{sub x}){sub 3}Se{sub 5} (0 < x < 1) materials and high-Ga-content Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2}-based solar cells

Book · Sun Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:276846

Contreras, M A; Wiesner, H; Niles, D; Ramanathan, K; Matson, R; Tuttle, J; Noufi, R ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)

Crystallographic, optical, and electrical properties of defect chalcopyrite Cu(In{sub 1{minus}x}Ga{sub x}){sub 3}Se{sub 5} (0 < x < 1) materials in polycrystalline thin-film form are reported. Also, an energy band alignment between such materials and CdS has been calculated from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data. A comparison of some properties against published data on similarly prepared chalcopyrite CuIn{sub 1{minus}x}Ga{sub x}Se{sub 2} absorber materials is presented. Considering the chalcopyrite/defect chalcopyrite junction model, the authors postulate that the traditionally poor device performance of uniform high-Ga-content absorbers (x > 0.3) is due to a relatively inferior character--both structural and electrical--at the very chalcopyrite/defect chalcopyrite interface. They demonstrate that this situation can be circumvented (for absorbers with x > 0.3) by properly engineering such an interface by reducing Ga content in the region near the surface of the absorber.

• OSTI ID: 276846
• Report Number(s): CONF-960513--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CADMIUM SULFIDES
CARRIER DENSITY
CHARGE CARRIERS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
COPPER SELENIDE SOLAR CELLS
COPPER SELENIDES
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ENERGY LEVELS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GALLIUM
GALLIUM SELENIDES
HALL EFFECT
INDIUM SELENIDE SOLAR CELLS
INDIUM SELENIDES
INTERFACES
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PERFORMANCE
SOLAR ABSORBERS