Chemical bath deposited Zn(Se,OH)(x) on Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)(2) for high efficiency thin film solar cells: growth kinetics, electronic properties, device performance and loss analysis

Zn(Se,OH), thin films were grown on Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)(2) (CIGSS) substrate by chemical bath technique. The initial formation and subsequent development of the CIGSS/Zn(Se,OH), interface are studied by XPS photoemission spectros copy. Changes in the In Id and Zn 3d core lines are used to directly determ ine the CIGSS/Zn(Se,OH)(x) heterojunction valence band discontinuity and th e consequent heterojunction band diagram. For device optimization the thick ness and good surface coverage Here controlled by XPS-UPS photoemission spe ctroscopy. A Zn(Se,OH)(x) thickness below 10 nm has been found to be optimu m for achieving a homogeneous and compact film on CIGSS. A remarkably high active area efficiency up to 15.7% (total area efficiency 13.26% with open circuit voltage (V-oc) up to 565.71 mV, a fill factor (FF) of 71% and a sho rt-circuit photocurrent density (J(ph)) greater than 33.01 mA/cm(2)) are ob tained. The internal parameters, such as the saturation currents, the serie s resistance R, and shunt resistance R-sh are calculated. Major losses in t hese cells are due to the significant influence of the series resistance R, on the fill factor. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.