Unveiling the effects of post-deposition treatment with different alkaline elements on the electronic properties of CIGS thin film solar cells

Thin film solar cells with a Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layer achieved efficiencies above 20%. In order to achieve such high performance the absorber layer of the device has to be doped with alkaline material. One possibility to incorporate alkaline material is a post deposition treatment (PDT), where a thin layer of NaF and/or KF is deposited onto the completely grown CIGS layer. In this paper we discuss the effects of PDT with different alkaline elements (Na and K) on the electronic properties of CIGS solar cells. We demonstrate that whereas Na is more effective in increasing the hole concentration in CIGS, K significantly improves the pn-junction quality. The beneficial role of K in improving the PV performance is attributed to reduced recombination at the CdS/CIGS interface, as revealed by temperature dependent J–V measurements, due to a stronger electronically inverted CIGS surface region. Computer simulations with the software SCAPS are used to verify this model. Furthermore, we show that PDT with either KF or NaF has also a distinct influence on other electronic properties of the device such as the position of the N1 signal in admittance spectroscopy and the roll-over of the J–V curve at low temperature. In view of the presented results we conclude that a model based on a secondary diode at the CIGS/Mo interface can best explain these features.