Copper Indium Diselenide thin films using a hybrid method of chemical bath deposition and thermal evaporation

ABSTRACTCopper indium diselenide (CIS) based solar cells are one among the promising thin film solar cells. Most of the processes reported for the preparation of CIS directly or indirectly involve Se vapor or H2Se gases which are extremely toxic to health and environment. In this work, we report the preparation of CIS thin films by stacked layers of Glass/In/Se/Cu2Se and Glass/In/Se/Cu2Se/Se. For this, first indium (In) thin film was thermally evaporated on glass substrate on which selenium (Se) and copper selenide (Cu2Se) thin films were deposited sequentially by chemical bath deposition. Selenium thin films were grown from an aqueous solution containing Na2SeSO3 and CH3COOH at room temperature, triple deposition for 7, 7 and 10 min from consecutive baths. Copper selenide thin films were deposited at 35 °C for 1 hour from an aqueous bath containing CuSO4, Na2SeSO3 and NH4OH. Analysis of the X-ray diffraction patterns of the thin films formed at 400 °C from the precursor layer containing extra selenium layer showed the presence of chalcopyrite CuInSe2, without any secondary phase. Morphology of all the samples was analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy. Optical band gap was evaluated from the UV-Visible absorption spectra of these films and the values were 1.1 eV and 1 eV respectively for CIS thin films formed at 400 °C from the selenium deficient and selenium rich precursor layers. Electrical characterizations were done using photocurrent measurements. Thus preparation of a CuInSe2 absorber material by a non-toxic selenization process may open up a low cost technique for the fabrication of CIS based solar cells.