Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting 2018 (NFM18)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2018.247
Publication date: 6th July 2018
A renewed interest in the role of grain boundaries in chalcopyrite-based thin-films solar cells is triggered by the highly efficient energy conversion obtained through the application of alkali post deposition treatments (PDT) [1,2]. Recent compositional studies indicate the presence of alkali metals at the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGSe) absorber surface and also in the bulk, localized especially at the grain boundaries (GB) [3-5]. Assessing the impact of GB properties on the efficiency requires a throughout insight into the nanoscale structural, chemical, and electronic properties of CIGSe. In this contribution, Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) is used to study the local electronic properties at GBs by spatially resolved imaging of the surface potential. From a statistical analysis we obtain the alkali-dependent (K, Rb, and Cs) potential variation across the GBs and compare the results with those obtained for samples subjected to an 8 minutes chemical bath deposition (CBD) of Zn(O,S). Different types of GBs are mainly found: majority neutral (the potential difference between GB and grain interior at the sides is negligible) and GBs with positive/upward potential increase. In average, however, a lower barrier potential and more homogenous potential variation is found for RbF. The early stage deposition of solution-grown Zn(O,S) buffer slightly reduce (in average) the potential difference at GBs in both cases.
[1] P. Jackson et al., Phys. Status Solidi RRL 9, 28 (2015); P. Jackson et al., Phys. Status Solidi RRL 10, 583 (2016).
[2] Press Release: Solar Frontier Achieves World Record Thin-Film Solar Cell Efficiency of 22.9%; http://www.solar-frontier.com/eng/news/2017/1220_press.html.
[3] P.-P. Choi, O. Cojocaru-Miredin, R. Wuerz, and D. Raabe, J. Appl. Phys. 110, 124513 (2011).
[4] D. Abou-Ras, B. Schaffer, M. Schaffer, S. S. Schmidt, R. Caballero, and T. Unold, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 075502 (2012).
[5] O. Cojocaru-Miredin, P.-P. Choi, D. Abou-Ras, S. Schmidt, R. Caballero, and D. Raabe, IEEE J. Photovoltaics 1, 207 (2011).
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