Investigation of pulsed D.C magnetron sputtering for the component layers of CuInSe2 baseed solar cells

Karthikeyan, Sreejith; Hill, AE; Pilkington, RD

Abstract

Pulsed D.C Magnetron Sputtering (PDMS) has been used to deposit the component layers required in the production of CuInSe2 (CIS), thin film solar cells. PDMS employs high plasma densities and is widely used for the reactive sputtering of dielectric materials. It can produce films with good crystalline properties even at low substrate temperatures. However, the technique has not previously been applied to photovoltaic cell fabrication. This work reports the deposition of Mo, CuInSe2, In2S3 and In2O3 films using PDMS from powder targets. A typical CIS/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layer based solar cell comprises a glass/Mo/(CIS/CIGS)/CdS/i-ZnO/ZnO heterojunction. The Mo films reported here were found to be tensile stressed, but were highly conducting and adhesive to the glass substrate. Morphology analysis revealed a nano-columnar grain structure which can improve nucleation properties for subsequent CIS film growth. The CIS films, deposited from powdered polycrystalline material, were found to be near stoichiometric with p-type conductivity for a wide range of target compositions. Single phase β-In¬2S3, an alternative for the CdS buffer layer, was also deposited successfully without any substrate heating. The In2O3 transparent conductive films were prepared from In2O3 powder with reactive sputtering under a controlled oxygen and argon atmosphere. A dramatic change in resistivity was observed when the oxygen content was increased. Resistivity increased from 0.004 cm (no oxygen) to 10 cm with 10% oxygen, the corresponding transmissivity also improved from 85% to 95%. The overall aim of this work is to produce a solar cell using only a single vacuum deposition technique.

Citation

Karthikeyan, S., Hill, A., & Pilkington, R. (2011, December). Investigation of pulsed D.C magnetron sputtering for the component layers of CuInSe2 baseed solar cells. Presented at Condensed Matter and Materials Physics 2011, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester , UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Speech
• Conference Name: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics 2011
• Conference Location: Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester , UK
• Start Date: Dec 13, 2011
• End Date: Dec 15, 2011
• Publication Date: Dec 14, 2011
• Deposit Date: Dec 23, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 23, 2011
• Publisher URL: http://www.cmmp.org.uk/IOP/media/uploaded/EVIOP/event_167/AB%20v3.pdf
• Related Public URLs: http://www.cmmp.org.uk/home
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference