Fundamentals of polycrystalline thin film materials and devices

This report presents the results of a one-year research program on polycrystalline thin-film solar cells. The research was conducted to better understand the limitations and potential of solar cells using CuInSe{sub 2} and CdTe by systematically investigating the fundamental relationships linking material processing, material properties, and device behavior. By selenizing Cu and In layers, we fabricated device-quality CuInSe{sub 2} thin films and demonstrated a CuInSe{sub 2} solar cell with 7% efficiency. We added Ga, to increase the band gap of CuInSe{sub 2} devices to increase the open-circuit voltage to 0.55 V. We fabricated and analyzed Cu(InGa)Se{sub 2}/CuInSe{sub 2} devices to demonstrate the potential for combining the benefits of higher V{sub oc} while retaining the current-generating capacity of CuInSe{sub 2}. We fabricated an innovative superstrate device design with more than 5% efficiency, as well as a bifacial spectral-response technique for determining the electron diffusion length and optical absorption coefficient of CuInSe{sub 2} in an operational cell. The diffusion length was found to be greater than 1 {mu}m. We qualitatively modeled the effect of reducing heat treatments in hydrogen and oxidizing treatments in air on the I-V behavior of CuInSe{sub 2} devices. We also investigated post-deposition heat treatments and chemical processing and used them to fabricate a 9.6%-efficient CdTe/CdS solar cell using physical vapor deposition.