The optimization of molybdenum back contact films for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells by the cathodic arc ion plating method

• Molybdenum back contact films for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells were prepared by the cathodic arc ion plating.
• The lowest electrical resistivity of molybdenum film was 6.9 μΩ-cm.
• Titanium buffer layer reduced the compressive residual stress of ion-plated molybdenum film.
• In I–V characteristics, the efficiency of solar cells was 11.1% and fill factor was 57.3%.

Molybdenum back contact films for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells have been deposited using DC magnetron sputtering methods. The electronic pathway properties of the molybdenum film have been highly dependent on the working gas pressure in magnetron sputtering, which should be carefully controlled to obtain high conductivity and adhesion. A coating method, cathodic arc ion plating, was used for molybdenum back contact electrode fabrication. The aim of this work was to find a metallization method for CIGS solar cells, which has less sensitivity on the working pressure. The resistivity, grain size, growth structures, stress, and efficiency of the films in CIGS solar cells were investigated. The results reveal that the growth structures of the molybdenum films mainly affect the conductivity. The lowest electrical resistivity of the ion-plated molybdenum films was 6.9 μΩ-cm at a pressure of 0.7 Pa. The electrical resistivity variation showed a gently increasing slope with linearity under a working gas pressure of 13.3 Pa. However, a high value of the residual stress of over 1.3 GPa was measured. In order to reduce stress, titanium film was selected as the buffer layer material, and the back contact films were optimized by double-layer coating of two kinds of hetero-materials with arc ion plating. CIGS solar cells prepared molybdenum films to measure the efficiency and to examine the effects of the back contact electrode. The resistivity, grain size, and surface morphology of molybdenum films were measured by four-point probe, X-ray diffraction, and a scanning electron microscope. The residual stress of the films was calculated from differences in bending curvatures measured using a laser beam.