Electrodeposition of near stoichiometric CuInSe₂ thin films for photovoltaic applications

Abstract

This work investigates on the single step electrodeposition of quality CuInSe2 (CIS) thin film absorber layer for photovoltaics applications. The electrodeposition was carried using an aqueous acidic solution with a pH of 2.25. The deposition was carried using a three electrode system in potentiostatic conditions for 50 minutes. The as-deposited and nitrogen (N2) annealed films were characterized using XRD, FE-SEM and Raman spectroscopy. It has been observed that the SDS has the tendency to suppress the copper selenide (CuxSe) secondary phase which is detrimental to the device performance.