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 00:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:276846

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

---

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-; TRN: IM9636%%521
• Resource Relation: Conference: 25. photovoltaic solar energy conference, Washington, DC (United States), 13-17 May 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of NREL preprints for the photovoltaic specialists conference of IEEE twenty-five; Gwinner, D. [ed.]; PB: 172 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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