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Defect chemistry of solar cell chalcopyrite materials

D. PERNIU1,* , S. VOUWZEE2, A. DUTA1, J. SCHOONMAN1,2

Affiliation

  1. Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania
  2. Delft Institute for Sustainable Energy, TU Delft, The Netherlands

Abstract

The I-III-VI2 chalcopyrite-structured compounds and related solid solutions are currently of interest for use as visible-light absorbing layers in thin-film solar cells. Depending on the deposition conditions and post-treatment, thin films of CIS and related materials might exhibit electronic or mixed ionic-electronic conductivity. They can be p-type or n-type semiconductors, due to the presence of point defects. The acceptor defects are copper- or indium-ion vacancies while the donor character is due to the copper- or indium – ion interstitials, and/or and/or sulphide ion vacancies. In addition to these simple defects, Raman studies, showed the presence of anti-site defects. The anti-site defects, related to the occurrence of Cu-Au ordering, deviate from the chalcopyrite structure and determine the quality of the CIS layer and the efficiency of the solar cell. In this paper the defect chemistry of CIS with deviations from stoichiometry and molecularity is addressed. The defect chemical equations, using the Kröger-Vink notation, are proposed for the CIS material as basis for explaining the defect formation and conduction mechanisms. A similar approach can be used to describe the defect structures of the related materials, like CuGaS2, CuInSe2, Cu(Ga,In)S2..

Keywords

Defect chemistry, Chalcopyrite, CuInS2, Cu-Au ordering.

Submitted at: Nov. 14, 2006
Accepted at: May 15, 2007

Citation

D. PERNIU, S. VOUWZEE, A. DUTA, J. SCHOONMAN, Defect chemistry of solar cell chalcopyrite materials, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 9, Iss. 5, pp. 1568-1571 (2007)