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A study on the optics of copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) solar cells with ultra-thin absorber layers

Man Xu, Arthur J. H. Wachters, Joop van Deelen, Maurice C. D. Mourad, and Pascal J. P. Buskens

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We present a systematic study of the effect of variation of the zinc oxide (ZnO) and copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) layer thickness on the absorption characteristics of CIGS solar cells using a simulation program based on finite element method (FEM). We show that the absorption in the CIGS layer does not decrease monotonically with its layer thickness due to interference effects. Ergo, high precision is required in the CIGS production process, especially when using ultra-thin absorber layers, to accurately realize the required thickness of the ZnO, cadmium sulfide (CdS) and CIGS layer. We show that patterning the ZnO window layer can strongly suppress these interference effects allowing a higher tolerance in the production process.

© 2014 Optical Society of America

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Figures (13)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Cross-sectional SEM image of a CIGS solar cell.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Constitution of a CIGS cell stack.

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 Complex refractive index [11] (a) and dielectric permittivity (b) of CIGS.

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Configuration of a flat multilayer stack.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Absorption and reflection spectrum of CIGS cell stack with (a) glass and (b) air as top incidence medium.

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 Absorption in ZnO, CdS, CIGS and Mo layers of CIGS cell as a function of wavelength and CIGS layer thickness (from 100 nm to 2 μm). The thicknesses of the layers are: ZnO layer 500 nm; CdS layer 50 nm; and Mo layer 500 nm. The absorption rate is calculated with respect to the total incident field.

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Fig. 7
Fig. 7 Absorption in ZnO, CdS, CIGS and Mo layers of CIGS cell as a function of wavelength and CIGS layer thickness (from 100 nm to 500 nm). The thicknesses of the layers are: ZnO layer 500 nm; CdS layer 50 nm; and Mo layer 500 nm. The absorption rate is calculated with respect to the total incident field.

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Fig. 8
Fig. 8 Absorption spectra of the CIGS and Mo layers for varying CIGS thickness.

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Fig. 9
Fig. 9 Total reflection of CIGS cell as a function of wavelength and ZnO layer thickness. Top incidence medium: glass. The thicknesses of the layers are: CIGS layer 500 nm; CdS layer 50 nm; and Mo layer 500 nm. The reflection rate is calculated with respect to the total incident field.

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Fig. 10
Fig. 10 Absorption efficiency map in different layers of CIGS cell as a function of wavelength and ZnO layer thickness. Top incidence medium: glass. The thicknesses of the layers are: CIGS layer 500 nm; CdS layer 50 nm; and Mo layer 500 nm. The absorption rate is calculated with respect to the total incident field.

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Fig. 11
Fig. 11 Constitution of a CIGS cell stack with patterning on the surface of ZnO layer.

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Fig. 12
Fig. 12 Effect of the structural patterning of the ZnO layer on the absorption characteristics. OThe top incidence medium is glass. The grating heights (h) are: (a) 50 nm; (b) 100 nm; and (c) 200 nm.

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Fig. 13
Fig. 13 Comparison of the near field distributions of a cell stack with 200 nm tall grating structure and of a flat cell stack for incident light of 750 nm.

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Equations (12)

Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more.

ℰ = Re [ E ( r ) e − i ω t ] ,
ℋ = Re [ H ( r ) e − i ω t ] ,
∇ × E = i ω B ,
∇ × H = − i ω D + J p ,
∇ ⋅ D = ρ p ,
∇ ⋅ B = 0 .
ε = ε ′ + i ε ″ = n ˜ 2 = ( n 2 − k 2 ) + i 2 n k
∇ × E = i ω μ 0 H ,
∇ × H = − i ω ε 0 ε ̳ E + J p .
1 2 E ⋅ J p * = i ω ( ε 0 2 ε ̳ E ⋅ E * − μ 0 2 | H | 2 ) − 1 2 ∇ ⋅ ( E × H * ) .
∫ V 1 2 Re ( E ⋅ J p * ) d 3 r + ω ε 0 2 ∫ V ε ̳ ″ E ⋅ E * d 3 r = − ∫ S 1 2 Re ( E × H * ) ⋅ n d 2 r ,
ω ε 0 2 ∫ V , n ε ̳ ″ E ⋅ E * d 3 r = − ( ∫ S S z , n + 1 d 2 r − ∫ S S z , n d 2 r ) ,
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