Non-vacuum route for CIGS thin film absorber on flexible glass substrates

Rapid commercialization of CIGS technology has slowed down because of expensive vacuum processes, toxic selenization step and rigid substrates narrowing the application range. In this work, non-vacuum based single-step intense pulsed light (IPL) post-treatment of doctor blade deposited CIGS thin film on a flexible glass substrate realized successfully for device application is presented. Precursor ink solution is achieved by appropriate combination of CIGS powder and polyethylene glycol. Dense and highly crystalline device quality CIGS thin film is confirmed by structural and morphological characterization. CdS is coated on the CIGS thin film by chemical bath deposition followed by sputtering of bilayer ZnO-Al:ZnO to form devices on flexible glass.