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Non‐destructive assessment of ZnO:Al window layers in advanced Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 photovoltaic technologies
Author(s) -
InsignaresCuello Cristina,
Fontané Xavier,
SánchezGonzález Yudania,
Placidi Marcel,
Broussillou Cedric,
LópezGarcía Juan,
Saucedo Edgardo,
Bermúdez Verónica,
PérezRodríguez Alejandro,
IzquierdoRoca Victor
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201431222
Subject(s) - materials science , photovoltaic system , optoelectronics , solar cell , characterization (materials science) , copper indium gallium selenide solar cells , raman spectroscopy , doping , electrical resistivity and conductivity , layer (electronics) , window (computing) , engineering physics , nanotechnology , computer science , optics , electrical engineering , physics , engineering , operating system
The increasing importance of the Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 based thin films photovoltaic industry claims for the development of new assessment and monitoring tools to answer the needs existing in the improvement of the control of the processes involved in the production of solar cells modules. In this frame, a strong interest has been given to the development methodologies for the assessment of the CIGS absorber, nevertheless advanced optical tools for the characterization of the other layers in the solar cells are still missing. In this work, we report a non‐destructive optical methodology based on resonant Raman concepts that has been developed for the characterization of Al doped ZnO layers (AZO) that are used as window layer in Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cells. Doping the ZnO layer with Al leads to the presence of a characteristic defect induced band at 510 cm −1 spectral region. The correlation of the relative intensity of this band with the resistivity of the layers provides a fast and reliable tool for their electrical monitoring. Analysis of solar cells fabricated with layers of different conductivities has allowed demonstration at cell level of the proposed methodology for the determination of efficiency losses related to degradation of the resistivity of the AZO layers.