Analysis of the gallium gradient in Cu(In1-xGax)Se2 absorbers by X-ray diffraction

Abstract

In order to analyze why the CIGS (CuInGaSe2) - based solar cells efficiency decrease for wide band gap (high Ga content), we have performed a series of samples by PVD using the three stage process. The average compositions of our solar cells range from x = 0 to x = 0.88, as measured by X-ray diffraction. An important feature of this process is to create a double Ga gradient into the absorber, which contributes to improve efficiencies, and this has a major impact on the determination of the sample composition from x-ray diffraction data. We have developed a model in order to assess this impact and question the validity of the compositions extracted from x-ray data. This model allows to get some information about gradient shapes. Using our model, we have obtained some insights on the evolution of the gallium gradient in samples with increasing Ga content, and we determine that this gradient is less pronounced when increasing the amount of gallium. It is a well known fact that this gradient assists the extraction of photocreated carriers, and the modifications of the gallium profile that we have determined may explain, for some part, the degradation of solar cells efficiency for high gallium compositions.