In-situ growth of a CdS window layer by vacuum thermal evaporation for CIGS thin film solar cell applications

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/22/10/107803

Abstract Highly crystalline and transparent CdS films are grown by utilizing the vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) method. The structural, surface morphological, and optical properties of the films are studied and compared with those prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD). It is found that the films deposited at a high substrate temperature (200 ℃) have a preferential orientation along (002) which is consistent with CBD-grown films. Absorption spectra reveal that the films are highly transparent and the optical band gap values are found to be in a range of 2.44 eV-2.56 eV. CuIn_1-xGa_xSe₂ (CIGS) solar cells with in-situ VTE-grown CdS films exhibit higher values of V_oc together with smaller values of J_sc than those from CBD. Eventually the conversion efficiency and fill factor become slightly better than those from the CBD method. Our work suggests that the in-situ thermal evaporation method can be a competitive alternative to the CBD method, particularly in the physical-and vacuum-based CIGS technology.

Keywords: CdS films CIGS thin film solar cell vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) chemical bath deposition (CBD)

Received: 18 May 2013
Revised: 20 June 2013
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	78.66.Hf	(II-VI semiconductors)
	78.20.Jq	(Electro-optical effects)
	68.55.J-	(Morphology of films)

Fund: Project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Grant No. 13ZR1428200).

Corresponding Authors: Men Chuan-Ling
E-mail: anziloveling@126.com

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Cao Min (曹敏), Men Chuan-Ling (门传玲), Zhu De-Ming (朱德明), Tian Zi-Ao (田子傲), An Zheng-Hua (安正华) In-situ growth of a CdS window layer by vacuum thermal evaporation for CIGS thin film solar cell applications 2013 Chin. Phys. B 22 107803

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In-situ growth of a CdS window layer by vacuum thermal evaporation for CIGS thin film solar cell applications

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