A study on the optics of copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) solar cells with ultra-thin absorber layers

Man Xu, Arthur J H Wachters, Joop Van Deelen, Maurice C D Mourad, Pascal J P Buskens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We present a systematic study of the effect of variation of the zinc oxide (ZnO) and copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) layer thickness on the absorption characteristics of CIGS solar cells using a simulation program based on finite element method (FEM). We show that the absorption in the CIGS layer does not decrease monotonically with its layer thickness due to interference effects. Ergo, high precision is required in the CIGS production process, especially when using ultra-thin absorber layers, to accurately realize the required thickness of the ZnO, cadmium sulfide (CdS) and CIGS layer. We show that patterning the ZnO window layer can strongly suppress these interference effects allowing a higher tolerance in the production process.

Original languageEnglish
JournalOptics Express
Volume22
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Mar 2014
Externally publishedYes

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