What is the dopant concentration in polycrystalline thin-film Cu(In,Ga)Se2?

•Capacitance-voltage and Hall analysis on polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 are compared.•Both techniques appear reliable with little error, and should be comparable.•Both techniques yield significantly different dopant concentrations.•Cadmium in-diffusion from the CdS buffer alters surface-near doping in solar cells.

We compare the dopant concentration of polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film absorbers derived from Hall and capacitance-voltage measurements. Although both measurements techniques appear to be reliable, dopant concentrations determined by capacitance-voltage analysis are significantly lower and vary with probing depth into the absorber. The doping profiles and differences between both measurement techniques are consistent with Cd in-diffusion from the CdS buffer layer during solar cell fabrication. Different doping profiles obtained after a variation of the CdS deposition process support this scenario.