Influence of RbF post deposition treatment on heterojunction and grain boundaries in high efficient (21.1%) Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells

Abstract Post deposition treatments (PDT) by alkali fluorides applied to chalcopyrite-based absorbers have produced record efficiencies in thin-film solar devices in the past few years and recently the efficiency of 22.6% was achieved with Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) using rubidium fluoride (RbF) PDT. However, the effects of RbF-PDT towards changes in its interfacial and grain boundary (GB) properties are still not fully understood. In this work, cells with efficiency higher than 21% are investigated by combination of atom probe tomography (APT) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to show how changes in GB and interface chemistry may facilitate high efficiencies. APT studies, carried out at the interface between CIGS absorber and solution-grown CdS buffer layer, show In enrichment and Cu depletion along with traces of Rb. Our APT studies reveal higher amounts of Rb (1.5 at. %) and lower amounts of Na and K (