Synthesis of CuInSe2 films by rapid thermal processing of stacked elemental layers

CuInSe2 (CIS) films were prepared by the stacked elemental layer (SEL) tech nique with subsequent post deposition rapid thermal processing. This techni que offered uniform deposition over a considerably large area (similar to 4 cm(2)) with perfect control on the individual elemental fluxes. In this me thod, elemental layers of Cu, In and Se were sequentially deposited on soda -lime glass substrates at room temperature (300 K) in appropriate thickness ratios to ensure the desired composition in the film. The layers were anne aled by the rapid thermal process in a temperature range of 373-723 K with an interval of 100 K and at a high ramp rate (similar to 30 K s(-1)) using tungsten lamps to ascertain the optimum annealing condition. Structural inv estigations were carried out by the XRD measurements in order to optimize t he annealing parameters (e.g., ramp rate and annealing temperature) for obt aining high quality CIS films free from the deleterious secondary binary ph ases. It was found that high quality films could be obtained by annealing t he stack at 673 K for 3 min in argon atmosphere. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.