AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Thin Film Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF-TuP

Paper TF-TuP16
Preliminary Study of CuIn@subx@B@sub1-x@Se@sub2@ Absorber Materials

Tuesday, November 14, 2006, 6:00 pm, Room 3rd Floor Lobby

Session: Thin Film Poster Session
Presenter: N.J. Ianno, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Authors: N.J. Ianno, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
T. Santero, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
R.J. Soukup, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Correspondent: Click to Email
One of the most useful thin film solar cell materials is CuInSe@sub2@ (CIS). However, the efficiency of solar cells fabricated with CIS is limited because of the narrow band gap of the CIS material. This problem has been reduced somewhat by the substitution of Ga for some of the In. The result is a more efficient solar cell, but still of limited voltage output because changes in the band structure limit the maximum amount of Ga that be substituted. We present preliminary results on the substitution of boron for indium. Theoretically, a much smaller amount of boron is needed to obtain a band gap near the optimum level of near 1.5eV. We have estimated this percentage to be about 24%. The films are deposited on bare soda-lime glass and Mo coated soda-lime glass via planar magnetron co-sputtering and are selenized in a separate step. The deposition is accomplished by sputtering from three separate targets of Cu, In, and B. In this way we have complete control over all the constituent elements. Deposition is made under a variety of conditions by varying the deposition rate and substrate temperature. The resulting films are analyzed by a variety of methods. These methods include characterization by x-ray diffractometry, photon transmission/absorption, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry and are compared to CIS films deposited in our laboratory and CIGS films reported in the literature. We will show the effect of boron substitution on the lattice parameter and the optical band gap.