EVOLUTION OF THE PHASES AND CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION DURING THE FORMATIONOF CIS THIN-FILMS PREPARED BY INTERDIFFUSION PROCESS IN SELENIDES LAYERS

CuInSe2 (CIS) thin films were prepared using a novel procedure involvi ng the interdiffusion of the species present in the bilayer system Inx Sey/CuxSey assisted by a post deposition annealing in a high-pressure atmosphere of elemental selenium. The influence of the annealing tempe rature on the phase and chemical composition of both the single precur sor layers and the bilayer system was established through X-ray diffra ction (XRD) using a specially developed computer programme and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) measurements. The chemical composition h omogeneity in the bulk of the resulting samples was also studied by (A uger electron spectroscopy) AES depth profile measurements. The possib le chemical reactions which give rise to the formation of a range of b inary and ternary compounds are given on the basis of EDS measurements and the identification, with a high degree of reliability, of the pha ses present in both the bilayer system and the selenide precursor laye rs. A special methodology was developed for the determination of the c rystallographic phases which combined commercial software criteria (in this case APD (automated powder diffraction)) together with a new cri terion, which takes into account the reflections in all parallel plane s (when they exist) of each of the phases present in the sample studie d. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.