Chalcogenide Photovoltaics

Preface Symbols and Acronyms INTRODUCTION History of Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se), Solar Cells History of CdTe Solar Cells Prospects of Chalcogenide Photovoltaics THIN FILM HETEROSTRUCTURES Energies and Potentials Charge Densities and Fluxes Energy Band Diagrams Diode Currents Light Generated Currents Device Analysis and Parameters DESIGN RULES FOR HETEROSTRUCTURE SOLAR CELLS AND MODULES Absorber Bandgap Band Alignment Emitter Doping and Doping Ratio Fermi Level Pinning Absorber Doping Absorber Thickness Grain Boundaries Back Contact Barrier Buffer Thickness Front Surface Gradient Back Surface Gradients Monolithic Series Interconnection THIN FILM MATERIAL PROPERTIES AII-BVI Absorbers AI-BIII-C2VI Absorbers Buffer Layers Window Layers Interfaces THIN FILM TECHNOLOGY CdTe Cells and Modules Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 Cells and Modules PHOTOVOLTAIC PROPERTIES OF STANDARD DEVICES CdTe Device Properties AI-BIII-C2VI Device Properties APPENDIX A: FREQUENTLY OBSERVED ANOMALIES JV Curves Colar Cell Parameters Diode Parameters Quantum Efficiency Transient Effects APPENDIX B: TABLES

Roland Scheer received his diploma degree in electronic engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany. He joined AEG Konstanz, Germany, in 1983 as electronic engineer. In parallel, he studied physics at the University of Konstanz and at the Technical University of Berlin where he received his physics diploma in 1990. In 1994, he finished his doctoral thesis in physics and joined the Helmholtz Centre (former Hahn-Meitner Institute) in Berlin. His R&D activities are focused on thin film solar cells where he invented a new solar cell based on CuInS2. In 2002, Roland Scheer was visiting scientist at the Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Japan. He was lecturer at the University of Potsdam until in 2010 he became full professor holding the endowed chair for photovoltaics at the Martin-Luther-University in Halle-Wittenberg.Hans-Werner Schock became head of the Institute of Technology at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (former Hahn-Meitner Institute) in the division "Solar Energy Research" in late 2004. He received his diploma in electrical engineering in 1974 and obtained his PhD in electrical engineering from Stuttgart University, Germany, in 1986. Starting in the early 70s, he has taken the development of chalcogenide solar cells from basic investigations to the transfer to a pilot fabrication plant. From 1986 to 2003 he coordinated the research on chalcopyrite based solar cells in the framework of the European photovoltaic program. From 1982 to 2004 he was head of the compound semiconductor thin film group of the Institute of Physical Electronics at the University of Stuttgart. He is author or co-author of more than 300 contributions in books, scientific journals and published conference proceedings. For his achievements in the development of chalcopyrite based solar cells he received the prestigious "Becquerel Prize" in 2010.