High-concentration silver alloying and steep back-contact gallium grading enabling copper indium gallium selenide solar cell with 23.6% efficiency

Jan Keller (), Klara Kiselman, Olivier Donzel-Gargand, Natalia M. Martin, Melike Babucci, Olle Lundberg, Erik Wallin, Lars Stolt and Marika Edoff
Additional contact information
Jan Keller: Uppsala University
Klara Kiselman: Uppsala University
Olivier Donzel-Gargand: Uppsala University
Natalia M. Martin: Uppsala University
Melike Babucci: Uppsala University
Olle Lundberg: Evolar AB (now First Solar European Technology Center AB)
Erik Wallin: Evolar AB (now First Solar European Technology Center AB)
Lars Stolt: Uppsala University
Marika Edoff: Uppsala University

Nature Energy, 2024, vol. 9, issue 4, 467-478

Abstract: Abstract Chalcopyrite-based solar cells have reached an efficiency of 23.35%, yet further improvements have been challenging. Here we present a 23.64% certified efficiency for a (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell, achieved through the implementation of a series of strategies. We introduce a relatively high amount of silver ([Ag]/([Ag] + [Cu]) = 0.19) into the absorber and implement a ‘hockey stick’-like gallium profile with a high concentration of Ga close to the molybdenum back contact and a lower, constant concentration in the region closer to the CdS buffer layer. This kind of elemental profile minimizes lateral and in-depth bandgap fluctuations, reducing losses in open-circuit voltage. In addition, the resulting bandgap energy is close to the local optimum of 1.15 eV. We apply a RbF post-deposition treatment that leads to the formation of a Rb–In–Se phase, probably RbInSe2, passivating the absorber surface. Finally, we discuss future research directions to reach 25% efficiency.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-024-01472-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natene:v:9:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1038_s41560-024-01472-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nenergy/

DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01472-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Energy is currently edited by Fouad Khan

More articles in Nature Energy from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().