| Abstract: | Reactive Magnetron Sputtering of Thin Film Solar Cells We show that reactive magnetron sputtering is well suited to deposit CuInS2‐thin film absorber layers of high electronic quality. Using metallic targets and substrate temperatures below 500 °C, compact films with grain sizes in the micrometer range can be obtained. The structural and electronic properties of these layers are comparable to CuInS2 thin films prepared by a 2‐step sulfurization process, which is being commercialized at present. In particular, the reactively sputtered films show minority carrier diffusion lengths larger than the layer thickness (≈ 2μm). This results in solar cells with conversion efficiences larger than 10 %, comparable to the best conversion efficiencies for CuInS2‐solar cells obtained from other deposition processes. These results are promising for the potential application of magnetron sputtering as a large area deposition process for absorber layers in thin film solar cells. |
