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Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin ZnO Films for Hybrid Window Layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) Solar Cells
The efficiency of thin-film chalcogenide solar cells is dependent on their window layer thickness. However, the application of an ultrathin window layer is difficult because of the limited capability of the deposition process. This paper reports the use of atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes for...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8619686/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34835545 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11112779 |
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author | Lee, Jaebaek Jeon, Dong-Hwan Hwang, Dae-Kue Yang, Kee-Jeong Kang, Jin-Kyu Sung, Shi-Joon Park, Hyunwoong Kim, Dae-Hwan |
author_facet | Lee, Jaebaek Jeon, Dong-Hwan Hwang, Dae-Kue Yang, Kee-Jeong Kang, Jin-Kyu Sung, Shi-Joon Park, Hyunwoong Kim, Dae-Hwan |
author_sort | Lee, Jaebaek |
collection | PubMed |
description | The efficiency of thin-film chalcogenide solar cells is dependent on their window layer thickness. However, the application of an ultrathin window layer is difficult because of the limited capability of the deposition process. This paper reports the use of atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes for fabrication of thin window layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) (CIGS) thin-film solar cells, replacing conventional sputtering techniques. We fabricated a viable ultrathin 12 nm window layer on a CdS buffer layer from the uniform conformal coating provided by ALD. CIGS solar cells with an ALD ZnO window layer exhibited superior photovoltaic performances to those of cells with a sputtered intrinsic ZnO (i-ZnO) window layer. The short-circuit current of the former solar cells improved with the reduction in light loss caused by using a thinner ZnO window layer with a wider band gap. Ultrathin uniform A-ZnO window layers also proved more effective than sputtered i-ZnO layers at improving the open-circuit voltage of the CIGS solar cells, because of the additional buffering effect caused by their semiconducting nature. In addition, because of the precise control of the material structure provided by ALD, CIGS solar cells with A-ZnO window layers exhibited a narrow deviation of photovoltaic properties, advantageous for large-scale mass production purposes. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8619686 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86196862021-11-27 Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin ZnO Films for Hybrid Window Layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) Solar Cells Lee, Jaebaek Jeon, Dong-Hwan Hwang, Dae-Kue Yang, Kee-Jeong Kang, Jin-Kyu Sung, Shi-Joon Park, Hyunwoong Kim, Dae-Hwan Nanomaterials (Basel) Article The efficiency of thin-film chalcogenide solar cells is dependent on their window layer thickness. However, the application of an ultrathin window layer is difficult because of the limited capability of the deposition process. This paper reports the use of atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes for fabrication of thin window layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) (CIGS) thin-film solar cells, replacing conventional sputtering techniques. We fabricated a viable ultrathin 12 nm window layer on a CdS buffer layer from the uniform conformal coating provided by ALD. CIGS solar cells with an ALD ZnO window layer exhibited superior photovoltaic performances to those of cells with a sputtered intrinsic ZnO (i-ZnO) window layer. The short-circuit current of the former solar cells improved with the reduction in light loss caused by using a thinner ZnO window layer with a wider band gap. Ultrathin uniform A-ZnO window layers also proved more effective than sputtered i-ZnO layers at improving the open-circuit voltage of the CIGS solar cells, because of the additional buffering effect caused by their semiconducting nature. In addition, because of the precise control of the material structure provided by ALD, CIGS solar cells with A-ZnO window layers exhibited a narrow deviation of photovoltaic properties, advantageous for large-scale mass production purposes. MDPI 2021-10-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8619686/ /pubmed/34835545 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11112779 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Lee, Jaebaek Jeon, Dong-Hwan Hwang, Dae-Kue Yang, Kee-Jeong Kang, Jin-Kyu Sung, Shi-Joon Park, Hyunwoong Kim, Dae-Hwan Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin ZnO Films for Hybrid Window Layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) Solar Cells |
title | Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin ZnO Films for Hybrid Window Layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) Solar Cells |
title_full | Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin ZnO Films for Hybrid Window Layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) Solar Cells |
title_fullStr | Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin ZnO Films for Hybrid Window Layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) Solar Cells |
title_full_unstemmed | Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin ZnO Films for Hybrid Window Layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) Solar Cells |
title_short | Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin ZnO Films for Hybrid Window Layers for Cu(In(x),Ga(1−x))Se(2) Solar Cells |
title_sort | atomic layer deposition of ultrathin zno films for hybrid window layers for cu(in(x),ga(1−x))se(2) solar cells |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8619686/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34835545 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11112779 |
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