Progress on Low-Temperature Pulsed Electron Deposition of CuInGaSe 2 Solar Cells

Massimo Mazzer, Stefano Rampino, Enos Gombia, Matteo Bronzoni, Francesco Bissoli, Francesco Pattini, Marco Calicchio, Aldo Kingma, Filippo Annoni, Davide Calestani, Nicholas Cavallari, Vimalkumar Thottapurath Vijayan, Mauro Lomascolo, Arianna Cretì and Edmondo Gilioli
Additional contact information
Massimo Mazzer: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Stefano Rampino: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Enos Gombia: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Matteo Bronzoni: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Francesco Bissoli: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Francesco Pattini: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Marco Calicchio: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Aldo Kingma: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Filippo Annoni: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Davide Calestani: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Nicholas Cavallari: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Vimalkumar Thottapurath Vijayan: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy
Mauro Lomascolo: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto di Microelettronica e Microsistemi (CNR-IMM), University Campus, Lecce 73100, Italy
Arianna Cretì: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto di Microelettronica e Microsistemi (CNR-IMM), University Campus, Lecce 73100, Italy
Edmondo Gilioli: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (CNR-IMEM), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/a, Parma 43124, Italy

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: The quest for single-stage deposition of CuInGaSe 2 (CIGS) is an open race to replace very effective but capital intensive thin film solar cell manufacturing processes like multiple-stage coevaporation or sputtering combined with high pressure selenisation treatments. In this paper the most recent achievements of Low Temperature Pulsed Electron Deposition (LTPED), a novel single stage deposition process by which CIGS can be deposited at 250 °C, are presented and discussed. We show that selenium loss during the film deposition is not a problem with LTPED as good crystalline films are formed very close to the melting temperature of selenium. The mechanism of formation of good ohmic contacts between CIGS and Mo in the absence of any MoSe 2 transition layers is also illustrated, followed by a brief summary of the measured characteristics of test solar cells grown by LTPED. The 17% efficiency target achieved by lab-scale CIGS devices without bandgap modulation, antireflection coating or K-doping is considered to be a crucial milestone along the path to the industrial scale-up of LTPED. The paper ends with a brief review of the open scientific and technological issues related to the scale-up and the possible future applications of the new technology.

Keywords: photovoltaics; thin films; pulsed electron deposition; CuInGaSe 2 (CIGS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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