Investigations on the sulphur incorporation in sputtered Cu, In multilayerprecursors

High quality CuInS2 layers have been grown using a two step process. Multip le Cu, In bilayers were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on Mo-coated g lass substrates followed by sulphurisation using elemental sulphur in a clo sed graphite box at different temperatures up to 550 degreesC. The layers w ere characterised to study their structure and composition using XRD, SEM a nd EDAX. More sulphur was incorporated at lower annealing temperatures with sulphur content higher than 50 at.%, while the Cu/In ratio ranges between 0.9 to 1.1. As the annealing temperature increases beyond 400 degreesC, the composition of sulphur decreases to 46 at.% with an incorporation of Mo in the layers. The secondary phases observed at different annealing temperatu res were identified and reported. Polycrystalline, single phase and densely packed CuInS2 layers with (112) preferred orientation were obtained for an nealing temperatures of about 350 degreesC. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.