The Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) offers a tremendous opportunity to any photovoltaic (PV) oriented researcher both young and old to convene at a single location and share their latest research results, meet new researchers and potentially new collaborators, catch-up with old colleagues or previous acquaintances in the field, and finally, keep up to date on the recent progress in the field of photovoltaics (or for young researchers, experience an in-depth introduction to the field). For me, it was my second time attending PVSC and I took advantage by participating in the presentation of some of my research group’s latest research results on dilute nitride solar cells, detailed balance predictions for quadruple junction solar cells, and spectral conversion affects with respect to thin film PV devices. I also had the opportunity to learn more about some research progress being made in thin film photovoltaics specifically on Cu(In,Ga)Se2, and on that note, I met a new potential collaborator: Dr. Angus Rockett from the University of Illinois (who happens to have the best name in the field of PV in my opinion).

Over the past year, my colleague Frederic Bouchard and I have embarked on an adventure of exploring the theoretical benefits of a novel multi-junction solar cell architecture which exploits the I-III-VI semiconductor material Cu(In,Ga)Se2 as the bottom sub-cell of a triple-junction solar cell, with the remaining materials composed of III-V semiconductors. A motivation for this novel design is the reduced costs of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and its strong material properties for PV applications, as illustrated by its cell power conversion efficiencies of >20% demonstrated in the literature on low cost substrates. The first steps in developing a numerical model of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 was studying the material properties as a function of varying the stoichiometry of the material, i.e. changing the In to Ga content, and how these effect the optoelectronic characteristics of PV oriented devices. Throughout our learning process, we encountered a number of publications authored by Dr. Rockett who focused on the growth dynamics of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 using a hybrid sputtering and co-evaporation process under various growth conditions and with different group III ratios, namely the Ga to In content. Working alongside the well known Dr. Shafarman, they explored the performance dependence of polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells as a function of this aforementioned group III ratio, since it greatly influences the optoelectronic properties of the material. Our interest in this was intricately linked to the poorer than expected performance of this material for high Ga content. Based on its bandgap as a function of Ga content, a detailed balance argument predicts that its performance should be higher for a molar fraction of Ga to In closer to 0.6. Alas, solar cells composed of such high Ga content have consistently demonstrated performances lower than those predicted by detailed balance, most likely due to changes in its material properties such as reduced minority carrier lifetimes potentially arising from larger cross-sectional trap states existing within the forbidden bandgap of the material at an energy level closer to the intrinsic level of the material. Modeling devices of different stoichiometries ranging from CuInSe2 to CuGaSe2 could potentially reveal some plausible physical phenomena responsible for this lower than expected performance. Furthermore, we had an important concern regarding the compatibility of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 with GaAs, a III-V semiconductor, using conventional epitaxial growth processes. On this note, Dr. Rockett is the only scientist in the field (as far as we know) that has successfully shown epitaxially grown Cu(In,Ga)Se2 on a GaAs substrate, which further allowed him and his research group to study the optoelectronic properties of the material in its monocrystalline state. This represents a huge stepping stone in achieving a multi-junction solar cell where the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 material would have to be in its monocrystalline state to enable high device efficiencies.

So after a year of research and the preliminary development of a numerical model for both poly- and monocrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells, Fred and I finally felt confident and knowledgeable enough to communicate directly with Dr. Rockett and request some high level discussion. We thus invited him to a face-to-face discussion, and he agreed! So on Wednesday at around noon after Dr. Rockett’s talk on doping chalcopyrite materials (CuInSe2 and CuGaSe2) using nitrogen, we met and discussed for about an hour some of his work and how it related to our work. We learned a great deal about his motivation for his research and he also gave us some feedback on our approach to the development of our numerical models. We then discussed the novelty and challenges involving the integration of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 with GaAs for multi-junction solar cells. The discussion was very positive and outlined some of the topics Fred and I should focus on in continuing the development of our numerical models. Dr. Rockett also agreed to discuss with his colleague Jim Sykes in order to look into their respective databases of measured device characteristics as a function of Ga content and send us any meaningful data.

Midway through our discussions, a colleague of Dr. Rockett sat nearby, passively listening in to our discussions. Dr. Rebekah Feist, from Dow Chemical, then introduced herself near the end of our discussion and volunteered to assist Fred and I on calibrating our numerical models based on her research group’s effort of understanding the effects of Ga content on polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 ­device performance. This was a key moment which was very much unexpected, and opened the door to another potential collaboration which I hope will benefit both parties. Presently, we are all in the process of communicating via email to setup the exchange of relevant data, such as voltage dependent quantum efficiency and temperature dependent current – voltage characteristics. These discussions might prove to be very beneficial to the development of our numerical models in order to study the aforementioned novel multi-junction solar cell architecture.

Alex Walker's picture-Alexandre Walker

Ph. D. Candidate (Year 4)

University of Ottawa’s SUNLAB

Department of Physics