Femtosecond laser-assisted fabrication of chalcopyrite micro-concentrator photovoltaics

Ringleb, Franziska; Andree, Stefan; Heidmann, Berit; Eylers, K.; Ernst, Owen C.; Boeck, T.; Schmid, Martina; Krüger, Jörg

doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.281

Cited by 11 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…For the intensity range explored, V oc continuously increases, with a slightly reduced slope at higher illumination intensities, similar to the observations by Paire et al 19 for co-evaporated CIGSe micro-cells. On the other hand, Heidmann et al 45 and Ringleb et al 46 reported a decrease of V oc at around 30-40 suns for CISe micro-solar cells prepared via bottom-up laser nucleation and LIFT techniques. In our case, an average rate of increase of around 127 and 150 mV dec −1 for S500 and S1500, respectively, is determined.…”

Section: Device Light Concentration Seriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-sized thin-film solar cells via area-selective electrochemical deposition for concentrator photovoltaics application

Siopa

Hajraoui

Tombolato

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Micro-concentrator solar cells enable higher power conversion efficiencies and material savings when compared to large-area non-concentrated solar cells. In this study, we use materials-efficient area-selective electrodeposition of the metallic elements, coupled with selenium reactive annealing, to form Cu(In,Ga)Se2 semiconductor absorber layers in patterned microelectrode arrays. This process achieves significant material savings of the low-abundance elements. The resulting copper-poor micro-absorber layers’ composition and homogeneity depend on the deposition charge, where higher charge leads to greater inhomogeneity in the Cu/In ratio and to a patchy presence of a CuIn5Se8 OVC phase. Photovoltaic devices show open-circuit voltages of up to 525 mV under a concentration factor of 18 ×, which is larger than other reported Cu(In,Ga)Se2 micro-solar cells fabricated by materials-efficient methods. Furthermore, a single micro-solar cell device, measured under light concentration, displayed a power conversion efficiency of 5% under a concentration factor of 33 ×. These results show the potential of the presented method to assemble micro-concentrator photovoltaic devices, which operate at higher efficiencies while using light concentration.

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Section: Device Light Concentration Seriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-sized thin-film solar cells via area-selective electrochemical deposition for concentrator photovoltaics application

Siopa

Hajraoui

Tombolato

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Another method for the fabrication of micro-CIGSe absorbers was presented by Ringleb et al [51]. Their approach uses LIFT, which consists of the transfer of a part of a donor film onto an acceptor substrate [52].…”

Section: Bottom-up Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main advantage of this method is the simplification of the whole fabrication process by reducing the number of steps in the micro-concentrator solar cell fabrication. The LIFT method was successfully implemented by Ringleb et al for CIGSe cells, transferring a metal precursor stack of Cu-In-Ga with thickness up to 1010 nm onto an acceptor Mo-coated glass substrate in a single transfer step, as shown in the optical micrograph image in figure 6(d) [51]. Subsequently, a standard selenization process in Se ambient, as well as an etching process by KCN to remove unwanted Cu-Se phases were performed.…”

Section: Bottom-up Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thin-film micro-concentrator solar cells

et al. 2019

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Photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion of sunlight into electricity is now a well-established technology and a strong further expansion of PV will be seen in the future to answer the increasing demand for clean and renewable energy. Concentrator PV (CPV) employs optical elements to concentrate sunlight onto small solar cells, offering the possibility of replacing expensive solar cells with more economic optical elements, and higher device power conversion efficiencies. While CPV has mainly been explored for highly efficient single-crystalline and multi-junction solar cells, the combination of thinfilm solar cells with the concentration approach opens up new horizons in CPV. Typical fabrication of thin-film solar cells can be modified for efficient, high-throughput and parallel production of organized arrays of micro solar cells. Their combination with microlens arrays promises to deliver micro-concentrator solar modules with a similar form factor to present day flat-panel PV. Such thinfilm micro-concentrator PV modules would use significantly less semiconductor solar cell material (reducing the use of critical raw materials) and lead to a higher energy production (by means of concentrated sunlight), with the potential to lead to a lower levelized cost of electricity. This review article gives an overview of the present state-of-the-art in the fabrication of thin-film micro solar cells based on Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 absorber materials and introduces optical concentration systems that can be combined to build the future thin-film micro-concentrator PV technology.

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“…However, in thin film applications these phenomena are rarely attributed to the dewetting process, since the name of the resulting structures are nanoparticles or clusters but rarely droplets. Nevertheless, the origin of these structures from fluid-like states offers the opportunity for novel bottom-up techniques to produce precursor materials for functional materials, such as chalcopyrites [ 11 ], or precursors for complex structures, such as nanowires [ 12 ]. Silicon, germanium and silicon oxide nanowires, for example, can be formed on different substrates by using metal catalysts in the form of tin, indium or gold nanodroplets [ 13 – 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of catalyst surface wetting: the early stage of epitaxial germanium nanowire growth

Ernst

Lange

Uebel

et al. 2020

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol.

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The dewetting process is crucial for several applications in nanotechnology. Even though not all dewetting phenomena are fully understood yet, especially regarding metallic fluids, it is clear that the formation of nanometre-sized particles, droplets, and clusters as well as their movement are strongly linked to their wetting behaviour. For this reason, the thermodynamic stability of thin metal layers (0.1–100 nm) with respect to their free energy is examined here. The decisive factor for the theoretical considerations is the interfacial energy. In order to achieve a better understanding of the interfacial interactions, three different models for estimating the interfacial energy are presented here: (i) fully theoretical, (ii) empirical, and (iii) semi-empirical models. The formation of nanometre-sized gold particles on silicon and silicon oxide substrates is investigated in detail. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of the three models are elucidated, the different substrates used are compared, and the possibility to further process the obtained particles as nanocatalysts is verified. The importance of a persistent thin communication wetting layer between the particles and its effects on particle size and number is also clarified here. In particular, the intrinsic reduction of the Laplace pressure of the system due to material re-evaporation and Ostwald ripening describes the theoretically predicted and experimentally obtained results. Thus, dewetting phenomena of thin metal layers can be used to manufacture nanostructured devices. From this point of view, the application of gold droplets as catalysts to grow germanium nanowires on different substrates is described.

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Femtosecond laser-assisted fabrication of chalcopyrite micro-concentrator photovoltaics

Cited by 11 publications

References 23 publications

Micro-sized thin-film solar cells via area-selective electrochemical deposition for concentrator photovoltaics application

Micro-sized thin-film solar cells via area-selective electrochemical deposition for concentrator photovoltaics application

Thin-film micro-concentrator solar cells

Analysis of catalyst surface wetting: the early stage of epitaxial germanium nanowire growth

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