Surface Passivation of CIGS Solar Cells Using Gallium Oxide

Siddhartha Garud; Nikhil Gampa; Thomas G. Allen; Ratan Kotipalli; Denis Flandre; Maria Batuk; Joke Hadermann; Marc Meuris; Jef Poortmans; Arno Smets; Bart Vermang

doi:10.1002/pssa.201700826

Surface Passivation of CIGS Solar Cells Using Gallium Oxide

Siddhartha Garud, Nikhil Gampa, Thomas G. Allen, Ratan Kotipalli, Denis Flandre, Maria Batuk, Joke Hadermann, Marc Meuris, Jef Poortmans, Arno Smets, Bart Vermang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This work proposes gallium oxide grown by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition, as a surface passivation material at the CdS buffer interface of Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cells. In preliminary experiments, a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure is used to compare aluminium oxide, gallium oxide, and hafnium oxide as passivation layers at the CIGS-CdS interface. The findings suggest that gallium oxide on CIGS may show a density of positive charges and qualitatively, the least interface trap density. Subsequent solar cell results with an estimated 0.5 nm passivation layer show an substantial absolute improvement of 56 mV in open-circuit voltage (V_OC), 1 mA cm⁻² in short-circuit current density (J_SC), and 2.6% in overall efficiency as compared to a reference (with the reference showing 8.5% under AM 1.5G).

Original language	English
Article number	1700826
Journal	Physica Status Solidi (A) Applications and Materials Science
Volume	215
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201700826
Publication status	Published - 11 Apr 2018

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title = "Surface Passivation of CIGS Solar Cells Using Gallium Oxide",

abstract = "This work proposes gallium oxide grown by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition, as a surface passivation material at the CdS buffer interface of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells. In preliminary experiments, a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure is used to compare aluminium oxide, gallium oxide, and hafnium oxide as passivation layers at the CIGS-CdS interface. The findings suggest that gallium oxide on CIGS may show a density of positive charges and qualitatively, the least interface trap density. Subsequent solar cell results with an estimated 0.5 nm passivation layer show an substantial absolute improvement of 56 mV in open-circuit voltage (VOC), 1 mA cm−2 in short-circuit current density (JSC), and 2.6% in overall efficiency as compared to a reference (with the reference showing 8.5% under AM 1.5G).",

keywords = "CIGS solar cells, gallium oxide, plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition, surface passivation",

author = "Siddhartha Garud and Nikhil Gampa and Allen, {Thomas G.} and Ratan Kotipalli and Denis Flandre and Maria Batuk and Joke Hadermann and Marc Meuris and Jef Poortmans and Arno Smets and Bart Vermang",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim",

year = "2018",

month = apr,

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doi = "10.1002/pssa.201700826",

language = "English",

volume = "215",

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T1 - Surface Passivation of CIGS Solar Cells Using Gallium Oxide

AU - Garud, Siddhartha

AU - Gampa, Nikhil

AU - Allen, Thomas G.

AU - Kotipalli, Ratan

AU - Flandre, Denis

AU - Batuk, Maria

AU - Hadermann, Joke

AU - Meuris, Marc

AU - Poortmans, Jef

AU - Smets, Arno

AU - Vermang, Bart

PY - 2018/4/11

Y1 - 2018/4/11

N2 - This work proposes gallium oxide grown by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition, as a surface passivation material at the CdS buffer interface of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells. In preliminary experiments, a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure is used to compare aluminium oxide, gallium oxide, and hafnium oxide as passivation layers at the CIGS-CdS interface. The findings suggest that gallium oxide on CIGS may show a density of positive charges and qualitatively, the least interface trap density. Subsequent solar cell results with an estimated 0.5 nm passivation layer show an substantial absolute improvement of 56 mV in open-circuit voltage (VOC), 1 mA cm−2 in short-circuit current density (JSC), and 2.6% in overall efficiency as compared to a reference (with the reference showing 8.5% under AM 1.5G).

AB - This work proposes gallium oxide grown by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition, as a surface passivation material at the CdS buffer interface of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells. In preliminary experiments, a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure is used to compare aluminium oxide, gallium oxide, and hafnium oxide as passivation layers at the CIGS-CdS interface. The findings suggest that gallium oxide on CIGS may show a density of positive charges and qualitatively, the least interface trap density. Subsequent solar cell results with an estimated 0.5 nm passivation layer show an substantial absolute improvement of 56 mV in open-circuit voltage (VOC), 1 mA cm−2 in short-circuit current density (JSC), and 2.6% in overall efficiency as compared to a reference (with the reference showing 8.5% under AM 1.5G).

KW - CIGS solar cells

KW - gallium oxide

KW - plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition

KW - surface passivation

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DO - 10.1002/pssa.201700826

M3 - Article

SN - 1862-6300

VL - 215

JO - Physica Status Solidi (A) Applications and Materials Science

JF - Physica Status Solidi (A) Applications and Materials Science

IS - 7

M1 - 1700826

ER -

Surface Passivation of CIGS Solar Cells Using Gallium Oxide

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