LAUSR

Abstract A pulsed-DC sputtering process at room temperature has been developed for the deposition of the CIGS absorber layer. It uses a single quaternary target and is followed by a high temperature post-deposition annealing process. It has to be particularly noticed that no additional selenium supply was used. The annealed layers have shown a high microstructural quality: micrometric grain size, highly oriented (112) chalcopyrite phase, no phase decomposition and no Cu2-xSe secondary phase at the surface. The use of such an absorber layer for the fabrication of 0.5 cm2 solar cells has allowed reaching a conversion efficiency of 11.8% with an open circuit voltage of 558 mV, a short circuit current density of 32.1 mA·cm−2 and a fill factor of 65.8%.