CIS low-cost thin-film solar cells made from elemental metallic nanoparticles: Comparison of selenization parameters

We discuss the influence of selenization time during the preparation of low-cost CuInSe₂ (CIS) solar cells using commercially available elemental Cu and In nanoparticles. A simple non-vacuum ink deposition method is used where the nanoparticles are dispersed in alcohol and deposited onto a Mo-coated substrate in ambient atmosphere. Furthermore we investigate in this work a simple non-vacuum selenization reaction based on elemental selenium instead of the rather complex selenization processes normally used in the sequential process. SIMS/SNMS, XRD and XRF measurements of the CIS layers are carried out for various selenization durations. We observed that longer selenization times lead to less oxygen and carbon residues, an increase of selenium at the back contact and higher power conversion efficiencies.