Investigation of aluminum induced degradation in sputtered Al:ZnO for CIGS solar cells applications

Author

Pan, Jie ; Kerr, Lei ; Li, Xiaonan ; Gulley-Stahl, Heather J. ; Sommer, Andre J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Paper & Chem. Eng., Miami Univ., Miami, OH, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

7-12 June 2009

Abstract

The long term performance of Cu(In, Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cells were strongly affected by their ability in withstanding surrounding weather change, including temperature, humidity, and light, etc. In our experiment, we focused on the stability study of window layer materials of undoped ZnO (IZO) and Al:ZnO (AZO) using damp heat and dry heat treatment. We found that the Al dopant had enhanced the capture of moisture in ZnO, and thus caused the degradation in film optical, morphological and electrical properties.

Keywords

Fourier transform spectra; II-VI semiconductors; aluminium; electrical resistivity; heat treatment; infrared spectra; scanning electron microscopy; semiconductor thin films; ultraviolet spectra; visible spectra; wide band gap semiconductors; zinc compounds; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; UV-VIS spectra; ZnO; ZnO:Al; damp heat treatment; dry heat treatment; electrical properties; four point probe method; moisture capture; morphological properties; optical properties; resistivity; scanning electron microscopy; solar cells; stability; transmission spectra; window layer materials; Aluminum; Degradation; Heat treatment; Humidity; Optical films; Optical materials; Photovoltaic cells; Stability; Temperature; Zinc oxide;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2009 34th IEEE

Conference_Location

Philadelphia, PA

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2949-3

Electronic_ISBN

0160-8371

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2009.5411667

Filename

5411667