Effect of tellurium deposition rate on the properties of Cu–In–Te based thin films and solar cells

✍ Scribed by Takahiro Mise; Tokio Nakada

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 747 KB
• Volume: 314
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-0248
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2010.10.147

✦ Synopsis

To investigate the effects of tellurium (Te) deposition rate on the properties of Cu-In-Te based thin films (Cu/In¼ 0.30-0.31), the films were grown on both bare and Mo-coated soda-lime glass substrates at 200 1C by co-evaporation using a molecular beam epitaxy system. The microstructural properties were examined by means of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The crystalline quality of the films was improved with increase in the deposition rate of Te, and exhibited a single CuIn 3 Te 5 phase with a highly preferred (1 1 2) orientation. Te-deficient film (Te/(Cu + In)¼ 1.07) grown with a low Te deposition rate showed a narrow bandgap of 0.99 eV at room temperature. The solar cell performance was affected by the deposition rate of Te. The best solar cell fabricated using CuIn 3 Te 5 thin films grown with the highest deposition rate of Te (2.6 nm/s) yielded a total area (0.50 cm 2 ) efficiency of 4.4% (V oc ¼ 309 mV, J sc ¼28.0 mA/cm 2 , and FF ¼ 0.509) without light soaking.