Effects of substrates on structural and optical properties of Cu-poor CuGaSe2 thin films prepared by in-situ co-evaporation

We investigated the structural and optical properties of Cu-poor CuGaSe₂ (CGSe) films depending on the use of different substrates: indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) coated soda-lime glass (SLG) and fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated SLG as back contacts, widely used Mo-coated SLG, and pure SLG. The Cu-poor phase is chosen as a counterpart of Cu-poor Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ to show the highest efficiency in this class of materials, and also give a test board for parasitic phases which might influence on device properties. Although the Cu-poor CGSe thin-films were deposited on the four substrates at the same time in an identical condition, they showed differences in the morphology and grain size due to different CGSe/substrate interfaces and growth mechanisms depending on the substrates. These surface properties of the CGSe films were identified clearly by atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement also supported the result of the AFM analysis and showed that the preferred orientation of CGSe is (112), independent of the substrates. The existence of parasitic phases was examined by Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopic techniques. While defect compounds such as CuGa₃Se₅ and CuGa₅Se₈ were identified for all films, the signals related to these parasitic phases are strongest for the films on the pure SLG substrate. Furthermore, the absorption property was investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry in a photon energy range of 0.7–5 eV. We found that the absorption coefficient values for the CGSe films are about 10⁴–10⁵ cm^?1 in the visible region. The absorption coefficient is also changed according to the use of different substrates. This difference comes from the parasitic phase formation, which leads to an increase of the bandgap and suppression of the optical absorption strength. Our systematic study suggests clearly that the difference in distribution of parasitic phases in the CGSe films could originate primarily from the different substrates used for the film deposition.     

Tuning of electrical and structural properties of metal-polymer nanocomposite films prepared by co-evaporation technique

Nanocomposites consisting of Au and Ag nanoparticles embedded in Teflon AF 1600 (Teflon) and Nylon 6 (Nylon) matrices were prepared by a simultaneous vapor phase deposition of both the polymer and the metal. The composite films were deposited between two Au-Pd alloy electrodes prepared by sputtering onto kapton foil substrates enabling further electrical measurements. The electrical properties of the composites are strongly influenced by the metal filling factor and changes in the microstructure. At first, the dependence of the resistivity of the composites consisting of various Ag and Au nanoparticle concentrations was investigated. The resistivity is characterized by a threshold region with a critical metal filling factor. Changes in the microstructure, in particular, can occur as a result of an induced electric field in between the metal nanoparticles and a heat treatment. The I–V characteristics of Teflon AF composites for different Au concentrations were studied thoroughly. An increase in the slope of the I–V curve up to a certain voltage (breakdown voltage) was observed. This phenomenon is accompanied by the field induced tunneling of the charge carriers which enhances the conductivity. The change in conductivity was also analyzed for Nylon nanocomposites with various Au concentrations in the temperature range 20–180 °C. The observed temperature dependence is explained by activated electron tunneling between metal nanoparticles and by rearrangements in the microstructure (e.g. coalescence of metal nanoparticles). PACS  78.67.-n; 78.67.Bf     

Development of porous metal oxide thin films by co-evaporation

This paper focuses on the development of mixed metal oxide thin films and physical characterization of the films. The films were produced by co-evaporation of titanium oxide and tungsten oxide powders. This allowed the development of titanium oxide-tungsten oxide films as analyzed using XPS. Examination in the SEM and AFM showed that the films were nanoporous with the pore size and pore orientation varying as a function of the deposition angle. UV-vis spectra of the films show an increase of transmittance with increasing deposition angle which is attributed to the structure and porosity of the films. Raman analysis indicated that the as-deposited films have broad and weak Raman characteristics, attributed to the nanocrystal nature of the films and the presence of defects, and the peak broadening deceases after annealing the film, as expected.     

Nd:YAG laser ablation characteristics of thin CIGS solar cell films

This work reports that the ablation characteristics of thin CuIn_1?x Ga _x Se₂ (CIGS) solar cell film differ significantly with elemental composition and laser pulse energy. From in situ shadowgraphs measured during Nd:YAG laser (1,064 nm) irradiation of CIGS films and crater morphologies, it was found that strong surface evaporation is dominant for low Ga concentration films of which band gap is well below the photon energy. As the band gap of CIGS film becomes close to or over the laser photon energy due to increased Ga content, surface absorption diminishes and at low laser energy, laser heating of the film plays an important role. It is demonstrated that for the CIGS films with Ga/(Ga + In) ratio being approximately over 0.2, the laser irradiation leads to solid phase removal of the film due to thermomechanical fracture at low laser energy but to ablative evaporation at elevated energy.     

Molybdenum thin films fabricated by rf and dc sputtering for Cu(In,Ga)Se_2 solar cell applications

Molybdenum(Mo) thin films, most commonly used as electrical back contacts in Cu(In?Ga)Se2(CIGS) solar cells, are deposited by rf and dc magnetron sputtering in identical systems to study the discrepancy and growth mechanisms of the two sputtering techniques. The results reveal that though different techniques generally de?posit films with different characteristic properties, Mo films with similar structural and physical properties can be obtained at respective suitable deposition conditions. Highly adhesive and conductive Mo films on soda lime glass are further optimized, and the as-fabricated solar cells reach efficiencies as high as 9.4% and 9.1% without an antireflective layer.     

Surface modification of CIGS film by annealing and its effect on the band structure and photovoltaic properties of CIGS solar cells

The composition of Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) films employed in CIGS solar cells is Cu deficient. There can be point defects, including Cu vacancies, Se vacancies, and metal anti-site defects. The surface composition and defects are not well controlled right after CIGS film fabrication with a three-stage co-evaporation process. This fabrication technique can result in a large variation in cell efficiency. In order to control the CIGS film in a reproducible way, we annealed the CIGS film in air, S, or Se. With this annealing procedure, the Cu content of the CIGS surface was significantly reduced and Ga content was strongly increased. An intrinsic CIGS layer with a lower valence-band maximum and a wider ban gap was formed at the surface. By annealing the CIGS film, the open-circuit voltage and fill factor were significantly improved, which indicates that the surface intrinsic layer acts as a hole-blocking layer so that the surface recombination rate is suppressed. In addition to CIGS film annealing, with subsequent annealing of the completed devices using rapid thermal annealing, the efficiency and reproducibility of CIGS solar cells were markedly improved.     

Post-annealing effect on the reactively sputter-grown CIGS thin films and its influence to solar cell performance

Using a reactive co-sputtering from Cu_0.6Ga_0.4 and Cu_0.4In_0.6 alloy targets, we prepared CuIn_1−xGa_xSe₂ (CIGS) thin films on Mo/soda-lime glass (SLG) in association with a thermal cracker for elemental atomic Se radicals. The film growth was performed at 500 °C for 90 min. To achieve the composition ratio of CIGS absorber layer, Cu_0.6Ga_0.4 target was set at RF power of 50 W, 60 W, 70 W, and 80 W while keeping at 100 W for Cu_0.4In_0.6 alloy target. Post-annealing was done for all the CIGS films at 550 °C for 30 min. The composition ratio of [Cu]/[In + Ga] and [Ga]/[In + Ga] was increased with RF power but showed no change after post-annealing. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed all the samples has grown dominantly in the [112] crystal orientation. We found the Cu_2−xSe and (InGa)_2−xSe₃ defect phase both at the surface and in the bulk, and developed with post-annealing. From the devices fabricated in the structure of grid/ITO/i-ZnO/CdS/CIGS/Mo/soda-lime glass (SLG), the external quantum efficiency (EQE) was observed to improve in the wavelength, λ ≥ 550 nm in the samples treated with annealing. In the current–voltage (J–V) measurements, the solar cell showed the best performance of FF = 54.1%, V_oc = 0.48 V, J_sc = 33.1 mA/cm² and η = 8.5% in the sample with [Cu]/[In + Ga] = 0.84 that improved largely from η = 4.6% for the solar cell with an as-grown CIGS films.     

Effects of deposition temperature on the structural and morphological properties of thin ZnO films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO thin films were grown on Si(1 0 0) substrates using pulsed laser deposition in O₂ gas ambient (10 Pa) and at different substrate temperatures (25, 150, 300 and 400 °C). The influence of the substrate temperature on the structural and morphological properties of the films was investigated using XRD, AFM and SEM. At substrate temperature of T=150 °C, a good quality ZnO film was fabricated that exhibits an average grain size of 15.1 nm with an average RMS roughness of 3.4 nm. The refractive index and the thickness of the thin films determined by the ellipsometry data are also presented and discussed.     

CdSxTe1-r多晶薄膜的制备与性质研究

采用真空共蒸发方法制备了CdSxTe1-x多晶薄膜,并用原子力显微镜、x射线衍射和光学透过率谱等研究了CdSxTe1-x多晶薄膜的结构和性质.结果表明薄膜均匀、致密、无微孔,当x≥0.5时为n型半导体,x＜0.5时为p型半导体.CdSxTe1-x多晶薄膜的光学能隙随x变化.结合薄膜的晶格常数和光学能隙得到了薄膜发生相变的组分,当x＜0.25时CdSxTe1-x多晶薄膜为立方相,当x＞0.25时为六方结构.退火后结构没有改变,能隙减小.提出了用CdSxTe1-x多晶薄膜作为缓冲层的新型结构太阳电池.     

衬底温度对MOCVD法沉积ZnO透明导电薄膜的影响

研究了衬底温度对MOCVD技术制备的ZnO薄膜的微观结构和光电特性影响. XRD和SEM的研究结果表明，衬底温度对ZnO薄膜的微观结构有显著影响，明显的形貌转变温度大约发生在175℃，低于175℃，薄膜呈镜面结构，晶粒为球状，高于177℃的较高温度范围，薄膜从“类金字塔”状的绒面结构演化为“岩石”状显微组织；随着温度增加，薄膜的晶粒尺寸明显增大.绒面结构的未掺杂ZnO薄膜具有17.96 cm²/V·s的高迁移率和3.28×10^-2 Ω·cm的低电阻率，对ZnO薄膜的进一步掺杂和结构优化有望应用于Si薄膜太阳电池的前电极. 关键词： MOCVD ZnO薄膜 透明导电氧化物 太阳电池     

Optical and electrical properties of In-doped CdO thin films fabricated by pulse laser deposition

Transparent indium-doped cadmium oxide (In-CdO) thin films were deposited on quartz glass substrates by pulse laser deposition (PLD) from ablating Cd-In metallic target at a fixed pressure 10 Pa and a fixed substrate temperature 300 °C. The influences of indium concentrations in target on the microstructure, optical and electrical performances were studied. When the indium concentration reaches to 3.9 wt%, the as-deposited In-CdO film shows high optical transmission in visible light region, obviously enhanced direct band gap energy (2.97 eV), higher carrier concentration and lower electric resistivity compared with the undoped CdO film, while a further increase of indium concentration to 5.6 wt% induces the formation of In₂O₃, which reverse the variation of these parameters and performance.     

Optimization of the CIGS based thin film solar cells: Numerical simulation and analysis

Chalcopyrite Cu(In,Ga)Se (CIGS) is a very promising material for thin film photovoltaics and offers a number of interesting advantages compared to the bulk silicon devices. CIGS absorbers today have a typical thickness of about 1–2 μm. However, on the way toward mass production, it will be necessary to reduce the thickness even further. This paper indicates a numerical study to optimization of CIGS based thin film solar cells. An optimum value of the thickness of this structure has been calculated and it is shown that by optimizing the thickness of the cell efficiency has been increases and cost of production can be reduces. Numerical optimizations have been done by adjusting parameters such as the combination of band gap and mismatch as well as the specific structure of the cell. It is shown that by optimization of the considered structure, open circuit voltage increases and an improvement of conversion efficiency has been observed in comparison to the conventional CIGS system. Capacitance–voltage characteristics and depletion region width versus applied voltage for optimized cell and typical cell has been calculated which simulation results predict that by reducing cell layers in the optimized cell structure, there is no drastically changes in depletion layer profile versus applied voltage. From the simulation results it was found that by optimization of the considered structure, optimized value of CIGS and transparent conductive oxide thickness are 0.3 μm and 20 nm and also an improvement of conversion efficiency has been observed in comparison to the conventional CIGS which cell efficiency increases from 17.65 % to 20.34%, respectively.     

Monocrystalline Si waffles for thin solar cells fabricated by the novel perforated-silicon process

2 for this waffle-shaped film when it is attached to glass substrates. Received: 15 May 1998/Accepted: 28 May 1998     

Electronic and optical properties in ZnO:Ga thin films induced by substrate stress

The effects of biaxial stress in ZnO:Ga thin films on different substrates, e.g., sapphire(0001), quartz, Si(001), and glass have been investigated by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and electrical transport and ellipsometric measurements. A strong dependence of orientation, crystallite size, transport, and electronic properties upon the substrate-induced stress has been found. The structural properties indicate that a tensile stress exists in epitaxial ZnO:Ga films grown on sapphire, Si, and quartz, while a compressive stress appears in films grown on glass. The resistivity of the films decreased with increasing biaxial stress, which is inversely proportional to the product of the carrier concentration and Hall mobility. The refractive index n was found to decrease with increasing biaxial stress, while the optical band gap E₀ increased with stress. These behaviors are attributed to lattice contraction and the increase in the carrier concentration that is induced by the stress. Our experimental data suggest that the mechanism of substrate-induced stress is important for understanding the properties of ZnO:Ga thin films and for the fabrication of devices which use these materials.     

Al掺杂原子分数及退火温度对ZnO薄膜光学特性的影响

采用溶胶凝胶法在（0001）Al2O3衬底上制备了不同掺杂原子分数的ZnO:Al薄膜,在Ar气氛中进行了600～950 ℃不同温度的退火处理,研究了掺杂原子分数和退火温度对薄膜光致发光、光吸收和透射的影响。结果显示,薄膜的紫外峰强度随掺杂原子分数和退火温度的提高而增强,与缺陷相关的绿光强度却随着掺杂原子分数和退火温度的提高而降低;薄膜光学带隙随掺杂原子分数的提高从3.21 eV增大到3.25 eV;光吸收在可见光区随着退火温度的升高而增大,在紫外区却随着退火温度的升高而减小,透射与吸收的变化规律相反;薄膜吸收边随退火温度的升高出现轻微的红移。     

Boron-doped nanocrystalline silicon thin films for solar cells

This article reports on the structural, electronic, and optical properties of boron-doped hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) thin films. The films were deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) at a substrate temperature of 150 °C. Crystalline volume fraction and dark conductivity of the films were determined as a function of trimethylboron-to-silane flow ratio. Optical constants of doped and undoped nc-Si:H were obtained from transmission and reflection spectra. By employing p⁺ nc-Si:H as a window layer combined with a p′ a-SiC buffer layer, a-Si:H-based p-p′-i-n solar cells on ZnO:Al-coated glass substrates were fabricated. Device characteristics were obtained from current-voltage and spectral-response measurements.     

Tribological properties of the Ti-Al-N thin films with different components fabricated by double-targeted co-sputtering

Ti-Al-N films with different chemical compositions were deposited on stainless steel by changing the relative substrate position to targets using double-targeted reactive magnetron sputtering technique in the same process. The tribological behavior of the Ti-Al-N films was investigated in the temperature ranging from room temperature to elevated temperature in air without any lubricant on UMT-3 multifunctional friction and wear tribometer. The structure of the as-deposited films and the worn surface after tribometer testing were identified using XRD, EDS and SEM. It was found that the chemical composition of the as-deposited films altered with substrate position from Ti_0.82Al_0.18N to Ti_0.12Al_0.88N. XRD results revealed that the sputtered films before heat treatment were amorphous, but different phases such as TiN, AlN and TiAlN were formed after heat treatment of 700 °C × 1 h. Friction and wear tests indicated the films with x = 0.57, 0.65 exhibited the best tribological performance during the Ti_1−xAl_xN films system because of its hard phase and the formation of transfer films.     

Effect of pressure on the electrical properties of flexible NiPc thin films fabricated by rubbing-in technology

Nickel phthalocyanine(Ni Pc) film was deposited onto the surface of flexible conductive glass by rubbing-in technology and used to fabricate devices based on ITO/Ni Pc/CNT/rubber structure. The I–V characteristics of the devices were investigated under different uniaxial pressures of 200, 280, and 480 gf/cm², applied perpendicular to the surface of the Ni Pc film. Results showed that the nonlinearity coefficients of the I–V curves are in the range of 2 to 3, which was found to be decreased with the increase of the pressure. The rectification ratio of the devices was estimated to be varied from 1.5 to 3 based on the applied pressure. Concluding, the resistance of the active layers was decreased with the increase of both pressure and voltage. We believe that using the rubbing-in technology under sufficient applied pressure it is possible to utilize Ni Pc for the development of various electronic devices such as diodes, nonlinear resistors, and sensors.     

Structural and optical properties of YSZ thin films grown by PLD technique

We report on the structural and optical properties of yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique and in situ crystallized at different substrate temperatures (T_s = 400 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C). Yttria-stabilized zirconia target of ∼1 in. diameter (∼95% density) was fabricated by solid state reaction method for thin film deposition by PLD. The YSZ thin films were grown on an optically polished quartz substrates and the deposition time was 30 min for all the films. XRD analysis shows cubic crystalline phase of YSZ films with preferred orientation along 〈1 1 1〉. The surface roughness was determined by AFM for the films deposited at different substrate temperatures. The nano-sized surface roughness is found to increase with the increase of deposition temperatures. For the optical analysis, a UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer was used and the optical band gap of ∼5.7 eV was calculated from transmittance curves.