Performance of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells using nominally alkali free glass substrates with varying coefficient of thermal expansion

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Abstract
In this report, Cu(In,Ga)Se2, CIGS, solar cell devices have been fabricated on nominally alkali free glasses with varying coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) from 50 to 95 * 10−7/ °C. A layer of NaF deposited on top of the Mo was used to provide Na to the CIGS film. Increasing the glass CTE leads to a change of stress state of the solar cell stack as evidenced by measured changes of stress state of the Mo layer after CIGS deposition. The open circuit voltage, the short circuit current density, and the fill factors, for solar cells made on the various substrates, are all found to increase with CTE to a certain point. The median energy conversion efficiency values for 32 solar cells increases from 14.6% to the lowest CTE glass to 16.5% and 16.6%, respectively, for the two highest CTE glasses, which have CTE values closest to that of the soda lime glass. This is only slightly lower than the 17.0% median of soda lime glass reference devices. We propose a model where an increased defect density in the CIGS layer caused by thermal mismatch during cool-down is responsible for the lower efficiency for the low CTE glass substrates.

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