Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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KR: Fachverband Kristallographie

KR 5: Topical Session Photovoltaic Materials I (with MM and BV MatWerk)

KR 5.1: Topical Talk

Mittwoch, 24. März 2010, 10:15–10:45, H4

Solar cell absorbers made from rust ? - Stacked-Elemental-Layer-RTP and corrosion of alloys — •Rainer Hock, Roland Schurr, and Astrid Hölzing — University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Chair for Crystallography and Structural Physics, Staudtstraße 3, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany

Semiconducting absorber materials for thin film photovoltaics like Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ can be crystallised by heating thin metallic films in chalcogenide atmospheres. This process is known under the acronym SEL-RTP (Stacked Elemental Layer - Rapid Thermal Processing). In the initial stages of this process, the metallic films are attacked by sulfur, selenium or both, forming often a variety of metal chalcogenides. We had a ’second look’ on the initial stage of SEL-RTP for the fabrication of absorber materials for thin film photovoltaic applications. This first step is the corrosion of the metal alloys in chalcogenide atmospheres. The different view on the fabrication process may allow to learn from a field of scientific research which was driven mainly by the oil and chemical industries in the second half of last century. At that time, the focus was directed on the search for corrosion resistant metal alloys for use in sulfur containing atmospheres or liquids. Through a reversed view, SEL-RTP may be seen as the desired and complete corrosion of thin metallic films. At the end of the corrosion process a polycrystalline thin film, monophase and with the desired material properties is hopefully produced. Controlled corrosion than leads to a functional, e.g. photovoltaically active thin film.