Surface modification of polycrystalline Cu(In, Ga)Se2 thin-film solar cell absorber surfaces for PEEM measurements

We present a thorough examination of the μm-scale topography of Cu(In, Ga)Se₂ (“CIGSe”) thin-film solar cell absorbers using different microscopy techniques. We specifically focus on the efficacy of preparing smooth sample surfaces - by etching in aqueous bromine solution - for a spatially resolved study of their chemical and electronic structures using photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM). The etching procedure is shown to reduce the CIGSe surface roughness from ca. 40 to 25 nm after 40s etching, resulting in an increase in the quality of the obtained PEEM images. Furthermore we find that the average observed grain size at the etched surfaces appears larger than at the unetched surfaces. Using a liftoff procedure, it is additionally shown that the backside of the absorber is flat but finely patterned, likely due to being grown on the finely-structured Mo back contact.