Application of a substrate bias to control the droplet density on Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ thin films grown by Pulsed Electron Deposition

One of the main shortcomings in the fabrication of thin-film solar cells by pulsed high-energy deposition techniques (i.e. Pulsed Laser Deposition or Pulsed Electron Deposition — PED), is the presence of a significant number of particulates on the film surface. This affects the morphological properties of the cell active layers and, ultimately, the performance of the final device. To reduce the density of these defects, we deposited a Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) thin film by PED and studied the effect on the film morphology when a DC bias was applied between the substrate and the target. Our results show that a negative substrate voltage, comprised between 0 and − 300 V, can not only reduce the droplet density on the CIGS film surface of about one order of magnitude with respect to the standard unbiased case (from 6 × 10⁵ to 5 × 10⁴ cm⁻²), but also lower the maximum particulate size and the surface smoothness. When a positive voltage is applied, we observed that a significant increase in the droplet surface density (up to 10⁸ cm⁻²) occurs. The abrupt change in the preferred crystal orientation (switching from (112) to (220)/(204) by applying negative and positive biases, respectively) is also a direct consequence of the applied DC voltage. These results confirm that the external DC bias could be used as an additional parameter to control the physical properties of thin films grown by PED. - Highlights: • Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) films were grown by Pulsed Electron Deposition (PED). • Positive and negative DC biases were applied between the target and the substrate. • The droplet density can be reduced by one order of magnitude by DC negative bias. • Chemical composition and grain orientation of CIGS are influenced by the DC bias. • The DC bias can be an additional parameter of PED for controlling the film properties