Real-time investigations on the formation of CuInSe2 thin film solar cell absorbers from electrodeposited precursors

In this article, we present results of a detailed real-time X-ray diffraction (XRD) study on the formation of CuInSe2 from electroplated precursors. The solid-state reactions observed during the selenisation of three different types of precursors are presented. The first type of precursors (I) consists of the nanocrystalline phases Cu2−xSe and InSe at room temperature, which react to CuInSe2 starting at 470 K. The second type of precursor (II) shows an inhibited CuInSe2 formation out of the initial phases Cu2−xSe and γ-In2Se3 starting at 400 K. The third precursor type (III) shows completely different selenisation behaviour. Starting from the intermetallic compound Cu11In9 and amorphous selenium, the formation of the binary selenides In4Se3 and CuSe is observed after the melting point of selenium at 494 K. After selenium transfer reactions, the compound semiconductor CuInSe2 is formed out of Cu2−xSe and InSe. This type (III) reaction path is well known for the selenisation of SEL precursors (stacked elemental layers of sputtered copper and indium and thermally evaporated selenium).