Abstract
Chalcopyrite copper indium gallium (di)selenide (Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS)) thin film has been examined as an absorber layer for solar cells because of its suitable absorption value, stability and economy in manufacture. CIGS thin films belong to the I–III–VI2 group of the periodic table with the appropriate direct bandgap (1.5 eV). In this study, CIGS thin films were annealed at ∼200°C for four different annealing times (15, 30, 45 and 60 min) to investigate the effect of the annealing time on the crystalline structure and optical properties of CIGS thin films prepared by using the sol–gel dip-coating technique. CIGS thin films annealed at ∼200°C for 60 min were found to have the best structural and optical properties in this study. As the crystallite size increased with the rise in the annealing time, the lattice strain decreased, indicating the elimination of crystallite defects in the CIGS thin-film structure. Hence, the structural changes affected the optical properties slightly and the rise in the optical absorbance (A%) resulted in a decrease in the optical transmittance (T%).
Highlights
Chalcopyrite copper indium galliumselenide (Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS)) thin film is a well-known p-type flexible absorber layer for thin-film solar cell applications due to its high absorption coefficient (>105 cm−1), and its optimum energy bandgap is 1.5 eV.[1]
CIGS chalcopyrite is well known for being more resistant to radiation damage than other common semiconductor thin films, such as silicon (Si), gallium arsenide (GaAs), cadmium sulfide (CdS) and gallium nitride (GaN),[11] which makes CIGS thin film a good candidate for usage in satellite applications
The CIGS thin films coated with five layers were withdrawn at the same speed (60 mm/min) and exposed to four different annealing times in under atmospheric conditions, 725 Downloaded by [] on [08/11/21]
Summary
Chalcopyrite copper indium gallium (di)selenide (Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS)) thin film is a well-known p-type flexible absorber layer for thin-film solar cell applications due to its high absorption coefficient (>105 cm−1), and its optimum energy bandgap is 1.5 eV.[1]. CIGS thin-film solar cells have high conversion efficiency among all thin-film polycrystalline solar cells. An efficiency of 23.35% has been reported for CIGS4 and cadmium telluride (CdTe).[5] CIGS thin films were produced by many different methods, such as high vacuum thermal evaporation,[6] pulsed electron growth,[7] metal–organic chemical vapor deposition,[8] molecular beam epitaxy[9] and pulsed laser magnification.[10] CIGS chalcopyrite is well known for being more resistant to radiation damage than other common semiconductor thin films, such as silicon (Si), gallium arsenide (GaAs), cadmium sulfide (CdS) and gallium nitride (GaN),[11] which makes CIGS thin film a good candidate for usage in satellite applications. There were some research studies about the effect of ionizing radiation[12,13,14,15,16] and annealing
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