Band-gap engineering in CuIn(Se,S) 2 absorbers for solar cells

• Published in: Solar energy materials and solar cells Vol. 93; no. 5; pp. 539 - 543
• Main Author: Bekker, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-05-2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Band gap; CuIn(Se; Energy; Exact sciences and technology; Natural energy; Partly selenized; Photovoltaic conversion; S) 2; Secondary phases; Solar cells. Photoelectrochemical cells; Solar energy; Secondary phases; Partly selenized; Band gap; CuIn(Se; Solar cell; Gallium; Thin film cell; Optical properties; S)2; Partly selenized; Secondary phases; Band gap; Energy band; Solar absorbers; Copper Indium Sulfides; Copper Indium Selenides
• ISSN: 0927-0248; 1879-3398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2008.11.014

Thin films based on CuInSe
2 have become very successful as absorber layers for solar cells. It is only in the recent past that gallium (Ga) and sulfur (S) were incorporated into CuInSe
2 in order to increase the energy band gap of the film to an optimum value with the ultimate aim of producing more efficient devices. This paper focuses on the incorporation of S into
partly selenized CuInSe
2 films in order to produce CuIn(Se,S)
2 films with varying S/Se+S ratios, resulting in different band-gap energies. This was achieved by varying the conditions when selenizing Cu/In alloys in H
2Se/Ar, and then exposing these various partly selenized films to H
2S/Ar under identical conditions.