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CIGS film from selenized of the electrodeposited CuIn alloy and CuGa oxide/hydroxide precursor

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Abstract

The difficultness of Ga inclusion in conventional CuInGa plating can be solved by metal-oxide/hydroxide deposition. However, the selenization process with the oxide precursor is very difficult, because of the strong electronegativity of oxygen. In this work, we proposed a strategy of Cu(InGa)Se2 thin films manufacture with selenization employing mixed precursor. The precursor consists of CuIn alloy and CuGa oxide/hydroxide, and deposited by electrodeposition as the sources of Cu, In and Ga. Then, the selenization process is performed in the mixed atmosphere of selenium vapor, hydrogen and argon. Meanwhile, we investigated the structural, optical and electrical properties of the prepared Cu(InGa)Se2 thin films, and it implied both the deposition potential and the subsequent selenization time impact the structure and morphology of the thin films. The co-deposition of CuGa oxide/hydroxide improved the Ga deposition ratio, and it exhibited dendrite growth with large deposition potential. The subsequent selenization results in the transformation from the precursor to CuInSe2 and Cu(InGa)Se2, as well as, the long selenization time lead to the oxygen concentration decreasing and high Ga concentration in CuInSe2 films. In the end, with a potential of −0.5 V versus Ag/AgCl electrode, the film had a photo-generated current density of 0.05 mA/cm2, and the CIGS solar cell achieved a conversion efficiency of 1.85%.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC No. 61974008), Inner Mongolia Normal University scientific research start-up funding project support (2019YJRC009), Inner Mongolia Natural Science Foundation Doctoral Fund Project (2020BS02011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Physics and Electron Information, Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, 010022, China

    Linrui Zhang

  2. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Linrui Zhang, Jingjing Qu, Xingyi Kong, Beiyun Liu & Hui Yan

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Zhang, L., Qu, J., Kong, X. et al. CIGS film from selenized of the electrodeposited CuIn alloy and CuGa oxide/hydroxide precursor. Appl. Phys. A 127, 824 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-021-04965-0

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