Pulse plating of semiconductors for solar cells

• Pulse plating with rectangular potential pulses provide improvement of the electrodeposited CIS film quality.
• Semiconductor p-CuInSe2 films with resistivity of 10 Ohm cm for thin film solar cells were pulse plated.
• Pulse plated ZnO nanorods form hierarchical nanostructures suitable for DSSC and organic solar cells.
• Antireflective coatings in form of nano-scale zinc oxide arrays with a parabolic profile were pulse plated.

Parameters of rectangular potential pulse electrodeposition which have allowed the obtaining of near-stoichiometric copper indium diselenide layers were determined by means of energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and the film resistivity measurements. Studies of effects of the pulse electrodeposition modes on structural and substructural parameters, morphology and optical properties of zinc oxide arrays allowed creation of hierarchical nanostructures with large specific surface areas suitable for dye-sensitized solar cells and organic photovoltaic devices. Optimization of pulse electrodeposition modes by means X-ray diffractometry, optical spectrophotometry and atomic force microscopy allowed adjusting sizes of parabolic nipples for creating antireflective moth-eye structure suitable for use in photovoltaic devices.