Previously, an innovative way to reduce rear interface recombination in Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se) 2 (CIGSSe) solar cells has been successfully developed. In this work, this concept is established in Cu 2 (Zn,Sn)(S,Se) 4 (CZTSSe) cells to demonstrate its potential for other thin-film technologies. Therefore, ultrathin CZTS cells with an Al 2 O 3 rear surface passivation layer having nanosized point openings are fabricated. The results indicate that introducing such a passivation layer can have a positive impact on open-circuit voltage (V O C ; +17%rel.), short-circuit current (J S C ; +5%rel.), and fill factor (FF; +9%rel.), compared with corresponding unpassivated cells. Hence, a promising efficiency improvement of 32%rel. is obtained for the rear passivated cells.

This contribution studies the impact of the KF-induced Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGSe) absorber modification

No abstract

An optimized test structure to study rear surface passivation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells by means of photoluminescence (PL) is developed and tested. The structure – illustrated in the abstract figure – is examined from the rear side. To enable such rear PL assessment, a semi‐transparent ultra‐thin Mo layer has been developed and integrated in place of the normal rear contact. The main advantages of this approach are (i) a simplified representation of a rear surface passivated CIGS solar cell is possible, (ii) it is possible to assess PL responses originating close to the probed rear surface, and (iii) a stable PL response as a function of air exposure time is obtained. In this work, PL measurements of such structures with and without rear surface passivation layers have been compared, and the measured improvement in PL intensity for the passivated structures is associated with enhanced CIGS rear interface properties. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) bright field cross‐section image of the rear illuminated test structure fabricated for PL characterization. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Previously, an innovative way to reduce rear interface recombination in Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se) 2 (CIGSSe) solar cells has been successfully developed. In this work, this concept is established in Cu 2 (Zn,Sn)(S,Se) 4 (CZTSSe) cells to demonstrate its potential for other thin-film technologies. Therefore, ultrathin CZTS cells with an Al 2 O 3 rear surface passivation layer having nanosized point openings are fabricated. The results indicate that introducing such a passivation layer can have a positive impact on open-circuit voltage (V O C ; +17%rel.), short-circuit current (J S C ; +5%rel.), and fill factor (FF; +9%rel.), compared with corresponding unpassivated cells. Hence, a promising efficiency improvement of 32%rel. is obtained for the rear passivated cells.