Bär, M.; Ennaoui, A.; Klaer, J.; Kropp, T.; Sáez-Araoz, R.; Allsop, N.; Lauermann, I.; Schock, H.-W.; Lux-Steiner, M.C.: Formation of a ZnS/Zn(S,O) bilayer buffer on CuInS2 thin film solar cell absorbers by chemical bath deposition. Journal of Applied Physics 99 (2006), p. 123503/1-9
10.1063/1.2202694
Abstract:
The application of Zn-compounds as buffer layers was recently extended to wide-gap CuInS2 (¿CIS¿) based thin-film solar cells. Using a new chemical deposition route for the buffer preparation aiming at the deposition of a single-layer, nominal ZnS buffer without the need for any toxic reactants such as, e.g. hydrazine, has helped to achieve a similar efficiency as respective CdS-buffered reference devices. In order to shed light on the differences of other Zn-compound buffers deposited in conventional chemical baths (¿CBD¿) compared to the buffer layers deposited by this alternative CBD process, the composition of the deposited buffers was investigated by x-ray excited Auger electron and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to potentially clarify their superiority in terms of device performance. We have found that in the early stages of this alternative CBD process a thin ZnS layer is formed on the CIS, whereas in the second half of the CBD the growth rate is greatly increased and Zn(S,O) with a ZnS/(ZnS+ZnO) ratio of approx. 80 % is deposited. Thus, a ZnS/Zn(S,O) bi-layer buffer is deposited on the CIS thin-film solar cell absorbers by the alternative chemical deposition route used in this investigation. No major changes of these findings after a postannealing of the buffer/CIS sample series and re-characterization could be identified.