Part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering CommonsOlejníček, J.; Kamler, Chad A.; Mirasano, A.; Martinez-Skinner, A. L.; Ingersoll, M. A.; Exstrom, C. L.; Darveau, S. A.; Huguenin-Love, J. L.; Diaz, M.; Ianno, Natale J.; and Soukup, Rodney J., "A non-vacuum process for preparing nanocrystalline CuIn 1−x Ga x Se 2 materials involving an open-air solvothermal reaction" (Abstract A non-vacuum, two-step process has been used to prepare a series of nanocrystalline CuIn 1−x Ga x Se 2 (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) materials.An open-air solvothermal preparation in triethylenetetramine solvent was followed by annealing at 500 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere for 20 min. All materials have mixed clustered plate, spherical particle, and nanorod morphologies with the smallest particle diameters ranging between 20 and 40 nm. Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirm that indium/gallium ratio control is possible over a wide range. The solvothermal reaction step yields a mixture of chalcopyrite and Cu 2−x Se. This is converted to pure chalcopyrite product by annealing at 500 °C.
Attempts to fabricate new CuIn 1-x B x Se 2 (CIBS) and CuBSe 2 (CBS) thin-film materials have been complicated by the formation of interfering crystallites and by the loss of boron from the magnetron sputtered precursor alloys during the selenization and annealing processes. Raman and Auger spectroscopic analysis as well as X-ray diffraction studies show that the formation of boron selenide may be contributing to the difficulty in creating these new materials.
a b s t r a c tPrevious attempts in producing light absorbing materials with bandgaps near the 1.37 eV efficiency optimum have included the partial substitution of gallium or aluminum for indium in the CIS system. The most efficient of these solar cells to date have had absorber layers with bandgapso1.2 eV. It is logical that an even smaller substitutional atom, boron, should lead to a wider bandgap with a smaller degree of atomic substitution. In this study, copper-indium-boron precursor films are sputtered onto molybdenum coated glass substrates and post-selenized. In the selenized films, although X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements confirm that a CIS phase is present, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) results indicate that boron is no longer homogeneously dispersed throughout the film as it was in the case of the unselenized precursor.
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