Erratum: Sudden stress relaxation in compound semiconductor thin films triggered by secondary phase segregation [Phys. Rev. B 92, 155310 (2015)]

Mainz, Roland; Rodríguez-Alvarez, H.; Klaus, Manuela; Thomas, D.; Lauche, Jakob; Weber, Alfons; Heinemann, Marc Daniel; Brunken, S.; Greiner, D.; Kaufmann, Christian A.; Unold, Thomas; Schock, H. W.; Genzel, Christoph

doi:10.1103/physrevb.93.159902

Cited by 2 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For CIGSe the extraction of the evolution of crystal domain sizes from diffraction peak widths is not reliable due to the Ga gradient, which also influences the peak width. However, since in a similar process without Ga the width of the 112 peak decreased with decreasing PD signal and remained constant afterwards, 30,42 we conclude that the grain growth takes place during planar fault annihilation. The acceleration of the annihilation rate at the Cu-poor to Cu-rich transition can then be explained by a lowering of the activation energy for grain boundary mobility.…”

Section: Mechanism Of Planar Defect Annihilationmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…Due to the shallow incidence and exit angles of the EDXRD/XRF setup (see Methods), the fluorescence signals provide time-resolved information about elemental depth distributions. 41 While the slow increase of Cu-Ka up to t E 60 min can be explained by a near homogenous incorporation of Cu into the film, the increased slope starting at the vertical dashed line reveals the onset of Cu-Se segregation at the surface of the film, 30,42 which is expected as soon as the film is Cu-saturated. 42 It can be seen that the fast drop of the PD signal starts shortly before the onset of Cu-Se segregation.…”

Section: View Article Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…41 While the slow increase of Cu-Ka up to t E 60 min can be explained by a near homogenous incorporation of Cu into the film, the increased slope starting at the vertical dashed line reveals the onset of Cu-Se segregation at the surface of the film, 30,42 which is expected as soon as the film is Cu-saturated. 42 It can be seen that the fast drop of the PD signal starts shortly before the onset of Cu-Se segregation. We can distinguish between two PD annihilation regimes -a slow one taking place at Cu-poor composition (i.e., before the onset of Cu segregation), and a fast one taking place near stoichiometric composition.…”

Section: View Article Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, the observation that the PD signal completely disappears within the resolution of the XRD and EDXRD measurements strongly suggests that the film completely recrystallizes at the Cu-poor to Cu-rich transition. Besides grain boundary energy and strain energy, 42 the defect energies may act as additional driving force for the recrystallization, similar to a phase-transition-driven grain growth. 3 …”

Section: View Article Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Annihilation of structural defects in chalcogenide absorber films for high-efficiency solar cells

Mainz

Sanli

Stange

et al. 2016

Energy Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

aIn polycrystalline semiconductor absorbers for thin-film solar cells, structural defects may enhance electron-hole recombination and hence lower the resulting energy conversion efficiency. To be able to efficiently design and optimize fabrication processes that result in high-quality materials, knowledge of the nature of structural defects as well as their formation and annihilation during film growth is essential. Here we show that in co-evaporated Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 absorber films the density of defects is strongly influenced by the reaction path and substrate temperature during film growth. A combination of high-resolution electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and X-ray diffraction shows that Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 absorber films deposited at low temperature without a Cu-rich stage suffer from a high density of -partially electronically active -planar defects in the {112} planes. Real-time X-ray diffraction Broader contextThe development of thin-film solar cells has been a success story in recent years in terms of record efficiencies in the lab. Single junction solar cells based on compound semiconductor films have reached higher energy-conversion efficiencies than polycrystalline silicon. Despite this success and the prospects of novel applications such as flexible, lightweight solar panels, the market share of thin-film solar modules is stagnating. A major problem of compound thin-film solar cells, such as Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 , is the large gap between lab efficiencies and commercial module efficiencies. A large process parameter space makes trial-and-error optimization a time-consuming and expensive task. Therefore, understanding the underlying atomic-scale physics and chemistry is essential to identify the potential origins of efficiency losses in the transfer from lab-to large-scale fabrication. Even though Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 has been investigated for several decades, there is still a lack of fundamental knowledge of the quality-determining mechanisms during film growth. In this contribution we present results from an international collaboration that provides direct insight into defect formation and annihilation during the fabrication of Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 films. Consequences for process optimization and design are proposed. The presented approach can also be applied to understand other thin-film fabrication processes.

show abstract

Section: Mechanism Of Planar Defect Annihilationmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: View Article Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: View Article Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: View Article Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Annihilation of structural defects in chalcogenide absorber films for high-efficiency solar cells

Mainz

Sanli

Stange

et al. 2016

Energy Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is mainly because thermal energy is needed for Cu diffusion, as well as to promote grain growth and annihilate defects. [ 4–6 ] Although single‐stage low‐temperature pulsed electron deposition (LTPED) can yield the efficiencies up to 17.0% at 250 °C, [ 7,8 ] this technique presents scale‐up challenges and technical issues such as the presence of micrometer‐sized particle. [ 9 ] A simpler method offering high performance and a better potential for transferring from laboratory to manufacturing is, therefore, needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silver‐Promoted High‐Performance (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se₂ Thin‐Film Solar Cells Grown at Very Low Temperature

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Achieving high power conversion efficiencies with Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells grown at low temperature is challenging because of insufficient thermal energy for grain growth and defect annihilation, resulting in poor crystallinity, higher defect concentration, and degraded device performance. Herein, the possibilities for high‐performing devices produced at very low temperatures (≤450 °C) are explored. By alloying CIGS with Ag by the precursor layer method, (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se2 (ACIGS) solar cells grown at about 450 °C reach an efficiency of 20.1%. Only a small efficiency degradation (0.5% and 1.6% absolute) is observed for ACIGS absorbers deposited at 60 and 110 °C lower substrate temperature. CIGS devices exhibit a stronger efficiency degradation, driven by a decrease in the open‐circuit voltage (VOC). The root cause of the VOC difference between ACIGS and CIGS devices is investigated by advanced characterization techniques, which show improved morphology, reduced tail states, and higher doping density in ACIGS absorbers. The proposed approach offers several benefits in view of depositions on temperature‐sensitive substrates. Increased Cu diffusion promoted by Ag allows end‐point detection in the three‐stage process at the substrate temperatures below 300 °C. The modified process requires minimal modification of existing processes and equipment and shows the potential for the use of different flexible substrates and device architectures.

show abstract

Erratum: Sudden stress relaxation in compound semiconductor thin films triggered by secondary phase segregation [Phys. Rev. B 92, 155310 (2015)]

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Annihilation of structural defects in chalcogenide absorber films for high-efficiency solar cells

Annihilation of structural defects in chalcogenide absorber films for high-efficiency solar cells

Silver‐Promoted High‐Performance (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se₂ Thin‐Film Solar Cells Grown at Very Low Temperature

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Erratum: Sudden stress relaxation in compound semiconductor thin films triggered by secondary phase segregation [Phys. Rev. B 92, 155310 (2015)]

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Annihilation of structural defects in chalcogenide absorber films for high-efficiency solar cells

Annihilation of structural defects in chalcogenide absorber films for high-efficiency solar cells

Silver‐Promoted High‐Performance (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se2 Thin‐Film Solar Cells Grown at Very Low Temperature

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Silver‐Promoted High‐Performance (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se₂ Thin‐Film Solar Cells Grown at Very Low Temperature