Laser-induced local phase transformation of CIGSe for monolithic serial interconnection: Analysis of the material properties

The change of electrical conductivity in chalcopyrite (i.e., Cu(Inx, Ga1−x)Se2 or CIGSe) solar cells induced by nanosecond laser pulses is investigated as a function of the elemental composition and its spatial distribution. The underlying laser induced phase transformation process, which results in a decomposition of the CIGSe semiconductor and a modification of its elemental composition, is utilized to form the monolithic series interconnection between front and back contact in CIGSe based thin film solar cells. The results show a dependence of the composition of the CIGSe layer and the resulting series resistance on the applied laser fluence. Lower series resistance is primarily related to an enhanced fraction of copper, gallium and zinc in the laser transformed zone resulting from selective vaporization of absorber elements. For intermediate laser fluences (~0.36 J/cm2) a patterning process is established that allows reliable and high-quality series interconnection. Both, lower and higher laser fluences result in high series resistances due to incomplete phase transformation or damages of the back contact, respectively.