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Title: Surface Modification of Polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Thin-Film Solar Cell Absorber Surfaces for PEEM Measurements

Abstract

We present a thorough examination of the {micro}m-scale topography of Cu(In, Ga)Se{sub 2} ('CIGSe') thin-film solar cell absorbers using different microscopy techniques. We specifically focus on the efficacy of preparing smooth sample surfaces - by etching in aqueous bromine solution - for a spatially resolved study of their chemical and electronic structures using photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM). The etching procedure is shown to reduce the CIGSe surface roughness from ca. 40 to 25 nm after 40s etching, resulting in an increase in the quality of the obtained PEEM images. Furthermore we find that the average observed grain size at the etched surfaces appears larger than at the unetched surfaces. Using a liftoff procedure, it is additionally shown that the backside of the absorber is flat but finely patterned, likely due to being grown on the finely-structured Mo back contact.

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Program
OSTI Identifier:
1048595
DOE Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: [Proceedings] 37th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC '11), 19-24 June 2011, Seattle, Washington
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; BROMINE; ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE; ETCHING; GRAIN SIZE; MICROSCOPY; MODIFICATIONS; ROUGHNESS; SOLAR CELLS; TOPOGRAPHY; Solar Energy - Photovoltaics

Citation Formats

Wilks, R G, Contreras, M A, Lehmann, S, Herrero-Albillos, J, Bismaths, L T, Kronast, F, Noufi, R, and Bar, M. Surface Modification of Polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Thin-Film Solar Cell Absorber Surfaces for PEEM Measurements. United States: N. p., 2011. Web. doi:10.1109/pvsc.2011.6186457.
Wilks, R G, Contreras, M A, Lehmann, S, Herrero-Albillos, J, Bismaths, L T, Kronast, F, Noufi, R, & Bar, M. Surface Modification of Polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Thin-Film Solar Cell Absorber Surfaces for PEEM Measurements. United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/pvsc.2011.6186457
Wilks, R G, Contreras, M A, Lehmann, S, Herrero-Albillos, J, Bismaths, L T, Kronast, F, Noufi, R, and Bar, M. 2011. "Surface Modification of Polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Thin-Film Solar Cell Absorber Surfaces for PEEM Measurements". United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/pvsc.2011.6186457.
@article{osti_1048595,
title = {Surface Modification of Polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Thin-Film Solar Cell Absorber Surfaces for PEEM Measurements},
author = {Wilks, R G and Contreras, M A and Lehmann, S and Herrero-Albillos, J and Bismaths, L T and Kronast, F and Noufi, R and Bar, M},
abstractNote = {We present a thorough examination of the {micro}m-scale topography of Cu(In, Ga)Se{sub 2} ('CIGSe') thin-film solar cell absorbers using different microscopy techniques. We specifically focus on the efficacy of preparing smooth sample surfaces - by etching in aqueous bromine solution - for a spatially resolved study of their chemical and electronic structures using photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM). The etching procedure is shown to reduce the CIGSe surface roughness from ca. 40 to 25 nm after 40s etching, resulting in an increase in the quality of the obtained PEEM images. Furthermore we find that the average observed grain size at the etched surfaces appears larger than at the unetched surfaces. Using a liftoff procedure, it is additionally shown that the backside of the absorber is flat but finely patterned, likely due to being grown on the finely-structured Mo back contact.},
doi = {10.1109/pvsc.2011.6186457},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1048595}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2011},
month = {Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2011}
}

Conference:
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