Device Structure of CIGS High Efficiency Solar Cells
The device structure commonly used in high-efficiency CIS solar cells is shown in Figure 1(a). The energy gap values of each layer material are Zn(): 3.30eV, CdS: 2.42eV, CulnSe2: 1.02eV, decreasing from top to bottom , which can cover a broad absorption range of the solar spectrum. Usually, the P-type Cu-rich CIS film is firstly plated on the indium-coated glass substrate to form a good ohmic contact, and then the In evaporation temperature is increased to continue plating the Intrin sic In-rich CIS film. At this time, its grain structure inherits the underlying CuCIS-rich film, which is also a large grain and a rough surface. The N-type CdS buffer layer on the CIS is designed for the best matching of the heterojunction electrical properties, and a chemical bath deposition method is used to cover the slightly rough surface intact. Finally, ZnO and Al/Ni beer films were grown successively by sputtering to complete the entire device structure. The energy conversion efficiency of solar cells with CIS as the main absorber layer is currently up to 15.4%; while the efficiency of the recent CIGS solar cells is close to 20%, and its device structure is shown in Figure 1(b).
The combination of materials in the device structure of the above-mentioned high-efficiency CIS solar cells has been in the same vein since the publication of the first CIS solar cell in 1976, but it is the same as the 10% breakthrough of the CIS solar cell structure by Piyin in the 1980s. compared to the material. However, there have been some important changes, including the use of uranium glass for the Jin glass substrate, the replacement of CIS with CIGS, and the slight changes in the anti-reflection layer and light-transmitting layer. The selection and characteristics of materials for each layer are briefly described below.
In the selection of glass substrates, borosilicate glass was initially used, and later, lower-cost uranium glass was used. Nano-atoms have strong diffusion ability in solid-state materials, and can pass through the aluminum layer into the CIS coating during the CIS evaporation process. The temperature at that time was about 500 °C and the time was about 60 min. Uranium has some unexpected but very positive effects in the growth of CTS films, and some preliminary understandings have been obtained in related studies: ① it inhibits the formation of crystalline defects; ② it contributes to the P-type conductivity. Although clear experimental evidence has not yet been obtained, indirect experimental results indicate that these effects and cell efficiency have been significantly improved. In this experiment, a thin NaF-containing film was deliberately plated on the indium layer to regenerate the CIS and complete the above device structure. , Table 2 shows that the cell efficiency value is improved by about 3%.
In terms of the ohmic contact of the back electrode, it has been experimentally confirmed that there is only a few atomic layers of M0Se2 between CIS and Mo when the CIS film is grown, which improves the CIS/Mo interface with Schottky contact characteristics. quality, while showing good ohmic contact characteristics.
For a long time, CdS is considered to be the best match to form a PN junction with CIS, and the energy band structures formed by the two have been discussed in many papers. Some believe that Cd will diffuse into CIS and replace Cu to become N-type dopant, causing the position of the PN junction to move inward to the CIS, so that the internal electric field formed by the PN junction is separated from the original CdS/CIS heterojunction due to the lattice. Defects due to lattice mismatch create regions of carrier recombination.
Originally in the 1980s. The role of N-CdS is mainly a light-transmitting layer (window layer). But because Cd is a heavy metal element, the thickness of the layer is greatly reduced, and now it is often called a buffer layer (buffer layer). Because the surface of the CIGS thin film is slightly uneven, the preparation of the CdS thin layer is often carried out by chemical bath deposition (CBD) to ensure that the thin film can cover the CIGS surface continuously and completely. Recent studies have found that discontinuous CdS The thin film will make the efficiency of CIGS solar cells not higher than 18% [1:. The relevant data is shown in Figure 3. This buffer layer also has the effect of blocking the atomic impact of ZnO and reducing the generation of defects. The current research also tends to use Cd-free buffer layer materials. Based on the current research results, a direct comparison under the same conditions is shown in Figure 4. Some materials such as ZnS and other buffer layers are matched with CIGS. For solar cells, their efficiency is already on par.
In the previous CIS solar cell structure, ZnO is the anti-reflection layer (anti-reflection layer), but in the high-efficiency CIGS solar cell structure, it has multiple roles, so the i-ZnO, which is an electrical near-intrinsic semiconductor, is Light-transmitting layer, doped with Al, ZnO:AlC with good conductivity, also known as AZO) is the outermost layer with multiple functions such as light-transmitting conductivity and anti-reflection.
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