• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.56-61
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• 2018

In this study, CIGS absorber layers were deposited on low-alkali glass and sodalime glass substrates and potasium floride (KF) of various thicknesses was supplied at an elevated temperature after the CIGS growth. The effect of KF post-deposition treatment on the two types of substrates was extremely different. On the low-alkali substrate, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) was improved but the fill-factor (FF) degradation was severe, whereas the sodalime substrate showed Voc deterioration and FF improvement. In the case of supplying 20 nm of KF on both substrates, the efficiency gain of 0.3~1.1%p was obtained. With increasing the KF thickness, a small protrusion-like microstructure developed on the surface of the absorber layer, and the microstructures that were not removed in the subsequent process were found to be the main cause of the FF loss.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.8-12
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• 2023

In this work, we investigated the thickness of Ag precursor layer to improve the performance of flexible CIGSe solar cells grown on stainless steel (STS) substrates through three-stage co-evaporation with Ga grading followed by alkali treatments. The small amount of incorporated Ag in CIGSe films showed enhancement in the grain size and device efficiency. With an optimal 6 nm-thick Ag layer, the best cell on the STS substrate yielded more than 16%, which is comparable to the soda-lime glass (SLG) substrate. Thus, the addition of controlled Ag combined with alkali post-deposition treatment (PDT) led to increased open-circuit voltage (VOC), accompanied by the increased built-in potential as confirmed by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. It is related to a reduction of charge recombination at the depletion region. The results suggest that Ag alloying and alkali PDT are essential for producing highly efficient flexible CIGSe solar cells.