Solar cells - H. Mirhosseini

Solar cells - H. Mirhosseini

ComCIGS II: Computational material science combined with experiments for the optimization of the efficiency of thin-film solar cells based on Cu(In,Ga)Se2.

Thin film solar cells based on CuIn1-xGaxSe2 (CIGS) are industrially manufactured in a large scale, being deployed worldwide due to their outstanding price/performance ratio, and because their device characteristics offers good performance in warm climates. Although efficiencies of up to 20.4% have been achieved at the laboratory scale, there is still considerable room for improvement both in the material properties and in the way how such devices are industrially mass produced.

A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image for the cross section of a CIGS thin film is given in the header figure at the top of the page, showing the layer sequence from the top to bottom: MgF2 antireflective coating, ZnO:Al, i-ZnO, CdS buffer layer, CIGS absorber layer, MoSe2 and Mo, respectively.

The main puorpose of the ComCIGS-II project funded by the German Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie is to improve the efficiency of thin film solar cells, which is a collaborative effort based on industrial and scientific partners: IBM Deutschland, Manz AG, Schott AG,  Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids.

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