Skip to main content
Log in

Material properties and growth mechanism of CuInSe2 prepared by H2Se treatment of metallic alloys

  • Published:
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A fundamental understanding of the mechanism of growth of CuInSe2 is essential for the production of device quality material. In this contribution, the growth kinetics of thin film CuInSe2 are investigated in the special case of H2Se/Ar treated copper-indium metallic alloys. A systematic study was conducted in which the evolution of surface morphologies by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), formation of crystalline X-ray diffraction (XRD) and variation in film composition, energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) were evaluated during various stages of selenization. SEM and XRD studies revealed a dramatic improvement in crystalline quality with increasing selenization temperature. SEM studies indicated a substantial increase in grain size (0.2μm → 1μm) when the reaction temperature was increased from 150 °C to 450 °C. XRD studies revealed the presence of mostly binary phases (i.e. Cu11In9, InSe, In6Se7 and CuSe) at selenization temperatures up to 250 °C. CuInSe2 was found to be the dominant phase at 350 °C and the film was almost completely converted to single phase material at 450 °C. The composition of the selenized films remained virtually unchanged in the temperature range between 150 °C and 350 °C. However, reaction of the metallic alloys to H2Se/Ar at temperatures around 450 °C resulted in a significant loss of indium from the films and subsequently to an increase in the Cu/In atomic ratio. The variation in crystalline quality of the films during various stages of selenization was also clearly reflected by low temperature photoluminescence (PL) studies. Virtually no PL response was detected from samples selenized at low temperatures below 350 °C, compared to rather strong emissions from samples selenized at higher temperatures around 450 °C. Furthermore, a significant difference in PL response was detected from samples selenized at 350 °C and 450 °C, respectively. Comparative studies indicated the presence of a free-to-bound transition (at 0.992 eV) only in the case of samples selenized at 450 °C, which indicated that these specific point defects (Vln) are created at high selenization temperatures. This observation is consistent with EDS results, indicating a substantial loss of In from samples selenized in this high temperature range. PL spectra from samples selenized at 350 °C were also characterized by a broad peak close to the band gap value, which was attributed to the presence of point defects associated with In-rich secondary phases. The improvement in crystalline quality with increased selenization temperatures and reaction periods was also clearly reflected by the reduction in the FWHM values of the PL peaks. The information gained from this study played an important role in the production of high quality films in our laboratories.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. J. HedstrÖm, H. OlsÉn, M. BodegÀrd, A. Kyler, L. Stolt, D. Hariskos, M. Ruckh and H. W. Schock, Proceedings of the Twentythird IEEE PVSEC (Louisville, 1993) p. 364.

  2. B. M. Basol, V. P. Kapur and R. J. Matson, Proceedings of the Twentysecond IEEE PVSEC (Las Vegas, 1991) p. 1179.

  3. J. Kessler and H. W. Schock, Proceedings of the Eleventh EC PVSEC (Montreux, 1992) p. 838.

  4. V. Alberts and R. Swanepoel, J. Mater. Sci.: Mater. Electron. 7 (1996) 91.

    Google Scholar 

  5. S. M. Wasim, Sol. Cells 16 (1986) 289.

    Google Scholar 

  6. J. R. Sites and R. E. Hollingsworth, ibid. 21 (1987) 379.

    Google Scholar 

  7. H. Tanino, T. Maeda, H. Fujikake, H. Nakanishi, S. Endo and T. Irie, Phys. Rev. B 45 (1992) 13323.

    Google Scholar 

  8. O. Schenker, J. H. SchÖn, F. Raiser, K. Friemelt, V. Alberts and E. Bucher, Proceedings of the Fourteenth EC PVSEC (Barcelona, 1997) p. 1334.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Alberts, V., Schon, J.H. & Bucher, E. Material properties and growth mechanism of CuInSe2 prepared by H2Se treatment of metallic alloys. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics 10, 469–474 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008905731532

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008905731532

Keywords

Navigation