Fundamentals of polycrystalline thin film materials and devices

This report presents the results of a one-year research program on polycrystalline thin-film solar cells. The research was conducted to better understand the limitations and potential of solar cells using CuInSe2 and CdTe by systematically investigating the fundamental relationships linking material processing, material properties, and device behavior. By selenizing Cu and In layers, we fabricated device-quality CuInSe2 thin films and demonstrated a CuInSe2 solar cell with 7 percent efficiency. We added Ga, to increase the band gap of CuInSe2 devices to increase the open-circuit voltage to 0.55 V. We fabricated and analyzed CuInGaSe2/CuInSe2 devices to demonstrate the potential for combining the benefits of higher V(sub oc) while retaining the current-generating capacity of CuInSe2. We fabricated an innovative superstrate device design with more than 5 percent efficiency, as well as a bifacial spectral-response technique for determining the electron diffusion length and optical absorption coefficient of CuInSe2 in an operational cell. The diffusion length was found to be greater than 1 micron. We qualitatively modeled the effect of reducing heat treatments in hydrogen and oxidizing treatments in air on the I-V behavior of CuInSe2 devices. We also investigated post-deposition heat treatments and chemical processing and used them to fabricate a 9.6 percent-efficient CdTe/CdS solar cell using physical vapor deposition.