New technologies for new environmentally oriented european economics: cadmium-free thin film Cu(In,Ga)Se2/(In2S3) heterophotoelements

Abstract

At present, the time has come to start the active search for commercial ecologically safe
technologies for growing large-area CulnGaSe films and obtaining the thin film
heterophotoelements on the basis of these films [1-4], It is very benefitial task for new
environmentally oriented European economics, We have long tenn experience with problem
how to develop ecology safe heterophotoelements as high-efficiency photoconverters of solar
radiation, First of all we have experiment with CulnSe2/green leafs heterojunctions [5-1 OJ,
then we studied thin-film n-ZnO:Al/p-Cu(ln,Ga)Se2 heterojunctions which was fabricated by
magnetron sputtering of an ZnO target, leading to a deposition of Cu(ln,Ga)Se2 films on the
surface [ 11 ], This study is a continuation of the important line of research in modern
photoenergy engineering and is concerned with development of the technology of cadmiumfree Cu(ln, Ga)Sei/ln2S3 thin film heterophotoelements,
The method of heat treatment of metallic Cu-In-Ga layers in the N2 inert atmosphere in the
presence of selenium and sulfur vapors was used to grow homogeneous films of Cu(ln,
Ga)(S,Se)2 alloys onto which the CdS or ln2S3 films were deposited and, on the basis of these
structures, the thin-film glass/Mo/p-Cu(ln, Ga) (S, Se)i/n-(ln2S3,CdS)/n-ZnO/Ni-AI
photoelements were fabricated, The mechanisms of charge transport and the processes of
photosensitivity in the obtained structures subjected to irradiation with natural and linearly
polarized light are discussed, The broadband photosensitivity of thin-film
heterophotoelements and the induced photopleochroism were detected; these findings indicate
that there is an interference-related blooming of the structures obtained,
It is concluded that it is possible to use ecologically safe cadmium-free thin-film
heterostructures as high-efficiency photoconverters of solar radiation,