Light absorption enhancement in ultra-thin Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cells by substituting the back-contact with a transparent conducting oxide based reflector

Mollica, Fabien; Jubault, Marie; Donsanti, Frédérique; Loubat, Anais; Bouttemy, Muriel; Etchéberry, Arnaud; Naghavi, Negar

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2016.10.006

Cited by 36 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Simply, the chemical passivation allows for the decrease of the total number of electrically active defects. [38][39][40][41] Ultrathin devices have recently been studied in detail by numerous groups [42][43][44][45][46][47] as they have the potential to reduce the material costs and manufacturing times. Such field is beneficial for the electrical performance of the solar cell, since it drives minority carriers away from the highly recombinative rear contact into the space charge region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passivation of Interfaces in Thin Film Solar Cells: Understanding the Effects of a Nanostructured Rear Point Contact Layer

Salomé

Vermang

Ribeiro‐Andrade

et al. 2017

Adv Materials Inter

110

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Thin film solar cells based in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) are among the most efficient polycrystalline solar cells, surpassing CdTe and even polycrystalline silicon solar cells. For further developments, the CIGS technology has to start incorporating different solar cell architectures and strategies that allow for very low interface recombination. In this work, ultrathin 350 nm CIGS solar cells with a rear interface passivation strategy are studied and characterized. The rear passivation is achieved using an Al2O3 nanopatterned point structure. Using the cell results, photoluminescence measurements, and detailed optical simulations based on the experimental results, it is shown that by including the nanopatterned point contact structure, the interface defect concentration lowers, which ultimately leads to an increase of solar cell electrical performance mostly by increase of the open circuit voltage. Gains to the short circuit current are distributed between an increased rear optical reflection and also due to electrical effects. The approach of mixing several techniques allows us to make a discussion considering the different passivation gains, which has not been done in detail in previous works. A solar cell with a nanopatterned rear contact and a 350 nm thick CIGS absorber provides an average power conversion efficiency close to 10%.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passivation of Interfaces in Thin Film Solar Cells: Understanding the Effects of a Nanostructured Rear Point Contact Layer

Salomé

Vermang

Ribeiro‐Andrade

et al. 2017

Adv Materials Inter

110

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“…A supposedly detrimental Ga 2 O 3 formation at the absorber/TCO interface (for AZO and ITO) or a reduced conductivity of FTO by a fluorine loss during high temperature absorber deposition was suggested as possible origin. On the other hand, Mollica et al have demonstrated ohmic behavior of FTO and AZO layers on CIGS (deposited at T CIGS > 500°C) and used these materials as appropriate TBCs in ultra‐thin CIGS devices . Thus, the applicability of the TCO films as a TBC seems to depend on details in the absorber processing like the incorporation of alkaline atoms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bifacial Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ solar cells using hydrogen‐doped In₂O₃ films as a transparent back contact

Keller

Chen

Riekehr

et al. 2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Hydrogen-doped In 2 O 3 (IOH) films are used as a transparent back contact in bifacial Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) solar cells. The effect of the IOH thickness and the impact of the sodium incorporation technique on the photovoltaic parameters are studied, and clear correlations are observed. It is shown that a loss in short circuit current density (J SC ) is the major limitation at back side illumination. The introduction of a thin Al 2 O 3 layer on top of the IOH significantly increases the collection efficiency (ϕ(x)) for electrons generated close to the back contact. In this way, the J SC loss can be mitigated to only~25% as compared with front side illumination. The Al 2 O 3 film potentially reduces the interface defect density or, alternatively, creates a field effect passivation. In addition, it prevents the excessive formation of Ga 2 O 3 at the CIGS/ IOH interface, which is found otherwise when a NaF layer is added before absorber deposition. Consequently, detrimental redistributions in Ga and In close to the back contact can be avoided. Finally, a bifacial CIGS solar cell with an efficiency (η) of η = 11.0% at front and η = 6.0% at back side illumination could be processed. The large potential for further improvements is discussed.

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“…A key technique for obtaining good light trapping and enhancing the efficiency of solar cells is to engineer the light behavior by using photonic crystals, 4 diffraction gratings, 5 anti-reection coatings, 6 surface texturing, 7 and metallic nanoparticles. 3,8 Plasmonic nanogratings among other structures show a substantial progress as they can be used either as an innovative back reector patterned on a metal mirror [9][10][11][12] and/or on transparent and conductive oxides (TCO), [13][14][15][16] to improve both the optical path length and optical absorption over a broad spectrum. The effective coupling between metallic nanograting modes and the incident light essentially presents an efficient light trapping developing from surface plasmon resonances and their resultant near-eld light concentration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient broadband light absorption in thin-film a-Si solar cell based on double sided hybrid bi-metallic nanogratings

et al. 2020

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Light absorption enhancement in ultra-thin Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cells by substituting the back-contact with a transparent conducting oxide based reflector

Cited by 36 publications

References 18 publications

Passivation of Interfaces in Thin Film Solar Cells: Understanding the Effects of a Nanostructured Rear Point Contact Layer

Passivation of Interfaces in Thin Film Solar Cells: Understanding the Effects of a Nanostructured Rear Point Contact Layer

Bifacial Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ solar cells using hydrogen‐doped In₂O₃ films as a transparent back contact

Efficient broadband light absorption in thin-film a-Si solar cell based on double sided hybrid bi-metallic nanogratings

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Light absorption enhancement in ultra-thin Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cells by substituting the back-contact with a transparent conducting oxide based reflector

Cited by 36 publications

References 18 publications

Passivation of Interfaces in Thin Film Solar Cells: Understanding the Effects of a Nanostructured Rear Point Contact Layer

Passivation of Interfaces in Thin Film Solar Cells: Understanding the Effects of a Nanostructured Rear Point Contact Layer

Bifacial Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells using hydrogen‐doped In2O3 films as a transparent back contact

Efficient broadband light absorption in thin-film a-Si solar cell based on double sided hybrid bi-metallic nanogratings

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Bifacial Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ solar cells using hydrogen‐doped In₂O₃ films as a transparent back contact