The influence of atmospheric species on the degradation of aluminum doped zinc oxide and Cu(In,Ga)Se₂solar cells

The impact of atmospheric species on the degradation of CIGS solar cells

“…However, hydrozincite formation could still have occurred in case the dissolution was avoided for a longer time, for example for the unpurged water samples. This would have resulted in ZnO:Al layers that still have a closed structure, but have increased potential barriers at the hydrozincite positions, for example at the grain boundaries, leading to increased sheet resistance of the ZnO:Al [6]. Naturally, this would have led to an increased series resistance of the complete CIGS solar cell as well.…”

“…Samples were placed in ultrapure water (deionized water further treated with a Synergy Millipore purifier) in high density polyethylene (HDPE) containers, as is shown in reference [6]. The vessels are non-transparent, so the samples are kept in dark.…”

“…Therefore, the impact on complete CIGS solar cells is yet unknown, but it can be expected that the combined impact of water and CO 2 will be detrimental for the ZnO:Al layer of the solar cells, while other layers might be affected by different combinations. Preliminary results have already shown a large impact on the cells when they are exposed to different atmospheric species [6]. Therefore, we have studied the impact of the exposure of CIGS solar cells to water combined with atmospheric gases (air, N 2 , O 2 and CO 2 ) in order to learn more about the influence of these species and their combination on the degradation.…”