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Thermally Evaporated AgGaTe2 Thin Films For Low-Cost p-AgGaTe2/n-Si Heterojunction Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

Krishna C. Mandal ,
Anton Smirnov ,
Utpal N. Roy  and
Arnold Burger
Krishna C. Mandal
Affiliation:
EIC Laboratories, Inc., 111 Downey Street, Norwood, MA 02062
Anton Smirnov
Affiliation:
EIC Laboratories, Inc., 111 Downey Street, Norwood, MA 02062
Utpal N. Roy
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Fisk University, Nashville, TN 37208
Arnold Burger
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Fisk University, Nashville, TN 37208
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Abstract

High quality polycrystalline AgGaTe2 (AGT) thin films were deposited on H-terminated n-Si substrates by controlled thermal evaporation method at various substrate temperatures (300–500 K). X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies showed that all films were of chalcopyrite structure and while the films were deposited at 300 K had random grain orientation, the films deposited at higher substrate temperature (500 K) showed preferred (112) orientation. The composition of the films was thoroughly analyzed by energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDAX) and by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with and without argon ion etching. The ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectra showed the optical bandgap of 1.16 eV, with sharper band edge for the films deposited at higher temperature. The films were p-type and the resistivities of the as deposited at 300 and 500 K were 2.8 × 104 and 1.2 × 103 Ω. cm respectively. p-AgGaTe2/n-Si heterojunction solar cells, having an active area of 0.12 cm2 and without any antireflection coating, were fabricated. It was observed that the films deposited at 500 K produced junctions with improved photovoltaic properties. Under solar simulator AM1 illumination, the improved junctions exhibited an efficiency of 4.8% whereas the films deposited at 300 K showed an efficiency of 2.1%.

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References

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