Annealing of wet treated Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ solar cells with an indium sulfide buffer

Compound evaporated indium sulfide is one commonly utilized cadmium free buffer layer for Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ solar cells. However, cells with such a buffer layer usually need a post-deposition annealing step to reach the maximum short circuit current, fill factor and open circuit voltage. In this work wet chemical treatments, partly containing cadmium ions, are applied to commercially available absorber material prior to indium sulfide evaporation in order to enhance the initial solar cell parameters. Cells built on treated absorbers show maximum open circuit voltage directly after window layer deposition and a drop in open circuit voltage is observed upon annealing. All samples, however, show an increased collection length and higher fill factor after annealing. A one diode model fit to the current-voltage curves gives ideality factors of 1.7 before annealing which are reduced to values around 1.5 after annealing. Supporting calculations show that the changes upon annealing can be explained within a model including a highly p-doped absorber surface layer. During annealing the acceptor density at the absorber surface might be reduced thus leading to a larger space charge region and thereby increasing the collection length and fill factor while reducing the open circuit voltage. - Highlights: • Wet treatments raise initial voltage of In₂S₃ buffered Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ solar cells. • Collection length increase after annealing of treated cells is observed. • Voltage decay is explained within a model including a highly p-doped surface layer. • Supporting simulations are in good agreement with the experiments