In this work an extensive experimental series has been carried out by co-evaporating CIGS layers with varying thickness (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 µm) and varying Ga content (Ga/(Ga+In)=0.15, 0.30, 0.45 and 0.60). In all CIGS layers the Cu concentration has been held constant at Cu/(In+Ga)=0.85. The cells have been characterized with dark and light current voltage measurements, external quantum efficiency measurements and apparent quantum efficiency measurements at negative bias. In agreement with the literature, we observe a distinctively shorter collection length for high Ga concentrations and voltage dependent photo current collection for all cells. Voltage dependent current collection however cannot alone explain our data and the cells need to be described with an illumination dependent diode current or photo current. The generation dependent diode or photo current increase the slope of the light JV curve at negative bias voltage for all solar cells and dominates the slope in cells with 0.5 µm thin absorbers regardless of Ga content. We propose that this behavior is connected to the recombination at the back contact, as it is smaller in the cells with thick absorber layers and since we do not observe the same behavior in back side passivated cells. Keywords: Cu(InGa)Se2, Modelling, Electrical Characterization, Shunting, Ga content, thin absorbers, superposition principle, shifting approximation

In this study, Cu(In, Ga)Se₂ solar cells with a high bandgap (1.31 eV) and a flat Ga profile ([Ga]/([Ga]+[In]) ≈ 0.60) were examined. For absorber layer thicknesses varying from 0.60 to 1.45 μm, the Mo rear contact of one set of samples was passivated with an ultrathin (27 nm) Al₂O₃ layer with point contact openings, and compared with reference samples where the rear contact remained unpassivated. For the passivated samples, mainly large gains in the short-circuit current led to an up to 21% (relative) higher power conversion efficiency compared with unpassivated cells. The differences in temperature-dependent current voltage behavior between the passivated and the unpassivated samples and the thin and the thick samples can be explained by an oppositely poled secondary photodiode at the rear contact.

In this work, rear-contact passivated Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells were fabricated without any intentional contact openings between the CIGS and Mo layers. The investigated samples were either Na free or one of two Na supply methods was used, i) a NaF precursor on top of the Al2O3 rear passivation layer or ii) an in situ post- deposition treatment with NaF after co-evaporation of the CIGS layer. The thickness of the ALD-Al2O3 passi- vation layer was also varied in order to find an optimal combination of Na supply and passivation layer thickness. Our results from electrical characterization show remarkably different solar cell behavior for different Na supplies. For up to 1nm thick Al2O3 layers an electronically good contact could be confirmed independently of Na deposition method and content. When the Al2O3 thickness exceeded 1 nm, the current was blocked on all samples except on the samples with the NaF precursor. On these samples the current was not blocked up to an Al2O3 layer thickness of about 6 nm, the maximum thickness we could achieve without the CIGS peeling off the Al2O3 layer. Transmission electron microscopy reveals a porous passivation layer for the samples with a NaF precursor. An analysis of the dependence of the open circuit voltage on temperature (JVT) indicates that a thicker NaF precursor layer lowers the height of the hole barrier at the rear contact for the passivated cells. This energy barrier is also lower for the passivated sample, compared to an unpassivated sample, when both samples have been post-deposition treated.

In this work, we evaluate the effect of NaF layers on the properties of Al2O3 and HfO2 rear contact passivation layers in ultra-thin Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ solar cells. The 6 nm thin passivation layers were deposited by atomic layer deposition and neither intentionally opened nor nano-patterned in any extra-fabrication step. NaF layers, 7.5 or 15 nm thin, were deposited as precursors prior to CIGS absorber co-evaporation. The 215 nm thick absorbers were co-evaporated with constant evaporation rates for all elements. Directly thereafter, a 70 nm thick cadmium sulfide layer was deposited. Photoluminescence measurements indicate a strongly reduced recombination at the rear contact for all passivated samples compared to an unpassivated reference. Although the sample with Al2O3 passivation and a 15 nm NaF precursor layer luminesces by far the least of the passivated samples, solar cells made from this sample show the highest efficiency (8.6% compared with 5.6% for the reference with no passivation). The current-voltage curves of the solar cells fabricated from the sample with 7.5 nm NaF on top of the Al2O3 layer and both samples with HfO2 exhibit blocking behavior to various degrees, but a high photoluminescence response. We conclude that NaF precursor layers increase conduction through the Al2O3 layer, but also reduce its effectiveness as a passivation layer. In contrast, conduction through the HfO2 passivation layers seem to not be influenced by NaF precursor layers, and thus requires nano-patterning or thinning for conduction.