The structural and material properties of CuInSe2 and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 prepared by selenization of stacks of metal and compound precursors by Se vapor for solar cell applications

CuInSe₂ films and related alloys were prepared by thermal evaporation of Cu, InSe and GaSe compounds instead of elemental sources. Band-gap tailoring in Cu(In,Ga)Se₂-based solar cells is an interesting path to improve their performance. In order to get comparable results, solar cells with Ga/(In+Ga) ratios x=0 and 0.3 were prepared, all with a simple two-step sequential evaporation process. The morphology of the resulting films grown at 550 °C was characterized by the presence of large facetted chalcopyrite grains, which are typical for device quality material. It is important to note that absorber films with elemental gallium resulted in a significant decrease in the average grain size of the film. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) diffraction pattern of single-phase Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ films depicts diffraction peaks shifting to higher 2θ values compared to that of pure CuInSe₂. The photoluminiscence (PL) spectrum of Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ thin films also depicts the presence of the peak at higher energy that is attributed to the incorporation of gallium into the chalcopyrite lattice. As the band gap of CIGS increases with gallium content, desirable effects of producing higher open-circuit voltage and low current density devices were achieved. A corresponding increase in device efficiency with gallium content caused by a higher fill factor was observed. The best results show passive area efficiencies of up to 10.2% and open-circuit voltage (V_oc) up to 519 mV at a minimum band gap of 1.18 eV.