Sodium enhances indium-gallium interdiffusion in copper indium gallium diselenide photovoltaic absorbers
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Copper indium gallium diselenide-based technology provides the most efficient solar energy conversion among all thin-film photovoltaic devices. This is possible due to engineered gallium depth gradients and alkali extrinsic doping. Sodium is well known to impede interdiffusion of indium and gallium in polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 films, thus influencing the gallium depth distribution. Here, however, sodium is shown to have the opposite effect in monocrystalline gallium-free CuInSe2 grown on GaAs substrates. Gallium in-diffusion from the substrates is enhanced when sodium is incorporated into the film, leading to Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu(In,Ga)3Se5 phase formation. These results show that sodium does not decrease per se indium and gallium interdiffusion. Instead, it is suggested that sodium promotes indium and gallium intragrain diffusion, while it hinders intergrain diffusion by segregating at grain boundaries. The deeper understanding of dopant-mediated atomic diffusion mechanisms should lead to more effective chemical and electrical passivation strategies, and more efficient solar cells.
Date Issued
2018-02-26
Date Acceptance
2018-01-22
Citation
Nature Communications, 2018, 9, pp.1-12
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Start Page
1
End Page
12
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
9
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000426048900013&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=a2bf6146997ec60c407a63945d4e92bb
Subjects
COMPOSITION DEPENDENCE
CRYSTAL
CU(IN,GA)SE-2 SOLAR-CELLS
DEFECT STRUCTURES
DIFFRACTION
DIFFUSION
EFFICIENCIES
GROWTH
Multidisciplinary Sciences
RAMAN
Science & Technology
Science & Technology - Other Topics
THIN-FILMS
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 826
Date Publish Online
2018-02-26