CIGS Solar cells

Course Project
Photovoltaics

Submitted by:
Basim Raza 15100065
Submitted to:
Dr. Nauman Zaffar But

Introduction:
A solar cell is a device that converts sun light into electricity through the process called the
photovoltaic effect. Solar cells are the building blocks for solar panels. Different type of solar
panels are available in the market depending upon from which solar cell are made off.

The whole working of solar cell occur in three steps:

I.
II.
III.

Firstly, when light falls electrons-hole pairs are generated in the surface (which is n+
doped)
The charge carriers need to be remain separated, that is recombination at the surface
need to be avoided.
Extracting those carriers to the external circuit. If we are talking in terms of excited
electrons that have been brought from valence to conduction band by the incident
photons, then these excited electrons need to be travel through the external connected
circuit, due to which the current flows

Initially there was only the crystalline silicon based solar cell. But since we can optimize the
property of a material up to a certain extent and later we have to start dealing with the trade
off so eventually people started looking into other materials. Several other materials were tried
to fabricate the solar cell with wide diversity into their properties compared to the initial
Crystalline Si. Based solar cell.
Our main purpose is to increase the efficiency of cell which later depends on individual
efficiencies like thermodynamic and quantum and obviously the Voc and the Phil factor (FF).

Reflection and recombination processes mainly contribute to quantum efficiencies of cell as

well as the Voc and the phil factor. Resistive losses (ESR and shunt resistance) to
thermodynamic efficiency.
The materials that were used to build those solar cells classified the generations of solar cells.
For example the first generation solar cells used to be of crystalline silicon based. Second
generation ones were of thin film solar cells which included CIGS, amorphous Si, CdTe used
both as stand alone photovoltaic devices as well as in integrated power systems. Third
generation includes multi junction solar cells which as the terms suggest contain several of the
p-n junctions. Hence if the theoretical efficiency of a single junction is 34%, that of a larger no.
of series p-n junctions will be higher and reaching to 84%. Practically it has been found to be
around 43% for a Si based cell [1]. These junction can either be of same type or of different
type of material. A junction made of two different material is called a hetero junction

While dealing with the efficiency one has be careful how the associated cost increases with the
process. Is the material commercially available, whether its environment hazardous or not. The
process with which the solar cell is fabricated is expensive or are there any alternate process
that can be used for fabrication.

Since those calculations are mainly related to feasibility of the process we will not discuss it into
our further discussion and we will only be concerned with the efficiency

What is CIGS:
Out of many solar cells CIGS solar cell is one that has been commercially made around 2010.
Out of the 3 fundamental thin film technologies available in the market, it is the one. Other
being the amorphous, CdTe thin film solar cells. CIGS stands for Copper (Cu), Indium (In),
Gallium (Ga) and Selenide (Se) formed as thin layer the back of which is supported with
electrodes to collect current.

CIGS cell properties:

So Cu is a transition metal. In,Ga are a post transition metal and Se is a nonmetal. Combined
they formed a metal solid solution (of alloys CIS and CGS) which behaves as a semiconductor
with a direct band gap and with very high absorption coefficients of 10E5/cm^3 at 1.5ev
incident photons [2]. The band gap varies from 1.0 eV (CIS ) to 1.7 eV (CGS).
Hence a material with a direct dynamic band gap (thus capable of absorbing of range of
wavelengths of light), high absorption coefficient, thin film structured meaning it would be
flexible, is highly favorable for us. Also, it is a hetero junction solar cell. The layer is of around
1um thin, compared to the traditional 200um thick layer of the crystalline Si based solar cells.

Device structure:
The picture above shows the structure of the CIGS device. It is important to understand it
before we go into other details of improving the efficiency of solar cells. Starting from the lower
most layer, is the soda lime glass which serving as a substrate. This is coated with Mo

Molybdenum metal which acts as a metal back contact . The hetero junction is formed
between the CIGS and ZnO, separated by a thin layer of CdS and ZnO (intrinsic). CIGS is doped p
type by intrinsic defects and ZnO is doped n-type by Aluminium. The ZnO is doped heavily
hence the junction extends very much to depth in CIGS region.
The wide layer of CIGS serves an a absorber with a band gap ranging from 1.02 eV (CIS) to 1.65
eV (CGs). In order to make upper surfaces less absorbent, their band gaps are kept relatively
higher. For ZnO its 3.2 eV and for CdS layer its 2.4 eV.
The top most ZnO layer serves as a contact of current collection.

Modes of production:
Traditionally it has been developed using co evaporation and sputtering while the more recent
techniques for fabricating these solar cells include non- vacuum solution processes. We wont
discuss the modes here since that relates to synthesis side of solar cells but we will consider the
effects of various oxide layers and other semiconductor layer deposition on the solar cells.

Efficiency Comparison:
Although less efficient that C-Si solar cells in terms of efficiency, CIGS are the most efficient
among the thin film solar technologies which include a-Si and CdTe cells Hitting the record
efficiency of 20.4% [3] compared to approx. 25% efficiency of mono crystalline solar cells. A
gap this close makes us to investigate more towards the thin film technology to make it more
comparable to C-Si solar cells.
It is interesting to note that a German company recorded the hit 45% efficiency of a solar cell
made by C-Si solar cell with front metal contact removed to the back and the front side coated
with thin film in order to have higher absorptions. So this kind of combinations are also under
consideration.[4]
Below be discussing the various techniques that have been employed in the past in order to
enhance the efficiency of CIGS solar cells. It would include deposition of Oxide layers, quantum
tunneling effects and effects of concentrated flux on the CIGS panel efficiency.

Methods employed to improve CIGS efficiency:

1- Wide bandgap Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells with improved energy conversion
efficiency[6]:
Attaining high efficiency (>16%) from semiconductor thin films has been difficult. Nevertheless,
by using (a) the alkaline-containing high-temperature EtaMax glass substrates from Schott AG,
(b) elevated substrate temperatures of 600650 C, and (c) high vacuum evaporation from
elemental sources following a three-stage process, we have been able to improve the
performance of wider bandgap solar cells with 1.2< Eg< 1.45 eV. The current densityvoltage
(JV) data we present includes efficiencies >18% for absorber bandgaps of ~1.30 eV and
efficiencies of ~16% for bandgaps up to ~1.45 eV. The energy bandgap values for the data in
Figure1 (and Table1) were determined from certified quantum efficiency (QE) curves by
arbitrarily assigning an effective bandgap value to the energy calculated from the wavelength
value where a 20% QE value is observed for the long wavelengths.

Figure 1

Table 1
Here we are able to report a significant improvement to the efficiency of wide gap CIGS solar
cells for 1.2eV<Eg<1.45eV. Nonetheless, the wide gap CIGS cells still suffer from a significant
interfacial recombination as established from our temperature-dependent JV measurements
shown in Figurebelow.

We have experimented with higher-than-standard substrate temperatures for the growth of

CIGS materials with 0.3<x<1.0. The use of higher processing temperatures (600650C) than
the standard 550600C typically used have led to significant improvements in the energy
conversion efficiency of wide gap CIGS solar cells with bandgaps up to 1.45eV. The main
parameter that has improved is the output voltage of the cells as compared with previous CIGS
materials grown on SLG substrates. A reduction in the reverse saturation current density value

is responsible for the enhanced voltages attained. The high-temperature CIGS materials grown
also show improvements to their grain boundary characteristics and now display properties
similar to those found in high-efficiency CIGS materials

2- 19.9%-efficient ZnO/CdS/ CuInGaSe2 Solar Cell with 81.2% Fill Factor:[4]

This technique describes a Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cell with record 19.9% total-area efficiency
demonstrated at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Processing of the record
device differed from that previously described in three respects. Most notably, The third stage
was terminated without Ga. During the last 10 s of the deposition, about 25 A of In were
delivered in the absence of Ga. Secondly, after the deposition was terminated, the sample was
subjected to a 2.5-min anneal in Se while the sample temperature was maintained at 6008C.
Third, a 2-min, 2008C air anneal was performed after the CdS deposition. Similar anneals have
yielded small improvements in fill factor and voltage for devices with efficiencies greater than
15%.8 We believe that these three empirical processing changes create a near-surface region in
the CIGS with reduced recombination.

Strategy:
The device exhibits significantly lower recombination and higher fill factor than earlier devices. Slight
modifications in CIGS surface are responsible for higher efficiency and greater fill factor.

3-

ZnO Doping Profile Effect on CIGS Solar Cells Efficiency and Parasitic
Resistive Losses based on Cells Equivalent Circuit [6]

The window layer of the CIGS thin film solar cells plays the role of transparent front contact and
the n-side of pn-heterojunction. Thus the variation of window layers electrical and optical
properties can affect the cell performance. Properties of Al-doped Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film as
most common used window layer for CIGS solar cells were studied here. Structure of the cell
used is below.

Table with material properties

The quantum efficiency of simulated CIGS thin film solar cell is shown in Fig. 5. Simulation
results shows that by increasing Al content in ZnO layer, the quantum efficiency will enhance. In
cell with a highly doped ZnO layer, there will be more amount of incoming light that can pass
through the TCO layer to the underlying layers and contribute to the quantum efficiency due to
increase of ZnO layers optical transmission

The cell performance is analyzed and simulated by the function of ZnO layers doping pr ofile. It
can be concluded that the cell with higher doped transparent conducting oxide ZnO shows
higher level of efficiency and both open circuit voltage and short circuit current density
improved by increasing Al-dopant content mainly from 2% to 5%. The ZnO layer with higher
doping level will enhance the cell property in terms of series resistance but it reduces the fill
factor slightly by reducing shunt resistance. In this study the ZnO layer with doping level of up
to 5% was investigated and the results show that although the shunt resistance decrease due to
an increase of ZnO doping level of up to 5%, the cell efficiency has increased. Ideally the series
resistance was to be infinity and shunt resistance was zero.

4-

Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells Measured under Low Flux Optical

Concentration [7]

The behavior of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells under low flux concentration is being
investigated for two complementary reasons. First, pairing photovoltaic devices with
inexpensive low flux optical concentration elements can be a rational pathway towards systems
that yield a low leveled cost of electricity (LCE). Second, characterization of photovoltaic films
under elevated flux levels can be an effective tool for helping to understand the nature of
recombination and other parasitic loss mechanisms in these device structures. Here we report
on a CIGS device that achieved a record efficiency of 23.3% at 14.7 Suns optical concentration.

The performance of these CIGS concentrator cells strongly suggest the presence of an internal
series resistance component that is limiting their ability to handle flux densities in excess of
twenty or thirty suns. Advances in the performance/cost ratio of low flux concentrating optical
systems make it worth considering novel approaches to populating these systems with power
converters. This work indicates that some polycrystalline thin-film devices have reached a
stage of development where their performance is high enough to leverage the investment in
optical enhancement while potentially taking advantage of their inherent low cost and other
qualities such as ease of fabrication of monolithic modules or deposition directly onto heat
spreaders.

Conclusion:
Over all, we have seen that different parameters take part to increase the efficiency of CIGs
solar cells. The varying band gap, doping of ZnO layer which serves not only as a contact but
also as an absorbent layer the thickness of CIS and CdS matters when computing the power
generated. It is suggested to model the Doping as well as the thickness of ZnO layer in CIGS to
check for optimal points for efficiency and a larger fill factor.

References:[1] http://www.cnet.com/news/solar-junction-claims-cell-efficiency-record/
[2] Stanbery, B. J. (2002). "Copper Indium Selenides and Related Materials for Photovoltaic Devices". Critical
Reviews in Solid State and Materials Science 27 (2): 73.
[3] http://www.empa.ch/plugin/template/empa/3/131438/---/l=2
[4] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pip.822/pdf
[6] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pip.2244/pdf
[7] http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6925546&tag=1

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