Soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy investigation of the surface chemistry and treatments of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai (China)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
The surface and near surface structure of copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) absorber layers is integral to the producing a high-quality photovoltaic junction. By using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and monitoring multiple elemental absorption edges with both theory and experiment, we are able to identify several features of the surface of CIGS as a function of composition and surface treatments. The XAS data shows trends in the near surface region of oxygen, copper, indium and gallium species as the copper content is varied in the films. The oxygen surface species are also monitored through a series of experiments that systematically investigates the effects of water and various solutions of: ammonium hydroxide, cadmium sulfate, and thiourea. These being components of cadmium sulfide chemical bath deposition (CBD). Characteristics of the CBD are correlated with a restorative effect that produces as normalized, uniform surface chemistry as measured by XAS. This surface chemistry is found in CIGS solar cells with excellent power conversion efficiency (<19%). The results provide new insight for CIGS processing strategies that seek to replace CBD and/or cadmium sulfide.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515; AC36-08GO28308; AC02-05CH11231; AC02-05CH11231 respectively
- OSTI ID:
- 1347563
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1334596; OSTI ID: 1476458; OSTI ID: 1495838
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5K00-67423; PII: S0927024816304779; TRN: US1701271
- Journal Information:
- Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 160, Issue C; ISSN 0927-0248
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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