Ensemble analyses by Minkowski-operations for spatially resolved structural and optoelectronic features of Cu(In,Ga)(Se 2,S 2) absorbers

• Published in: Thin solid films 2009-02, Vol.517 (7), p.2427-2430
• Main Authors: Heidemann, Florian, Gütay, Levent, Meeder, Alexander, Bauer, Gottfried H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: chalcopyrite semiconductor; Cu(In,Ga)(Se 2,S 2); Minkowski-operations; quasi-Fermi level splitting; spatially resolved luminescence; spectral luminescence
• ISSN: 0040-6090; 1879-2731
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2008.11.056

Polycrystalline chalcopyrite semiconductors like Cu(In,Ga)(Se 2,S 2) as physically and technologically promising thin film solar cell absorbers show a considerable degree of spatial inhomogeneity of structural, optical and optoelectronic properties above and below the length scale of grain sizes. The dilution of magnitudes such as splitting of quasi-Fermi levels with a certain distribution of lower energies, introduced e.g. by local fluctuations, introduce an additional reduction of the free energy of the photon field and drop thus the solar light conversion yield. For a comprehensive interpretation of the influence of such inhomogeneity effects on the solar cell efficiency we perform lateral scans of various magnitudes recorded with a confocal setup with high lateral resolution (≤ 1 µm), like splitting of quasi-Fermi levels, AFM-surface contours with different scan sizes and at different sample positions. We compare these sets of magnitudes by their respective Minkowski-opening-operations, extract correlation coefficients, determine average values and their respective statistical momenta (variances), and extrapolate minimum scan sizes for the collection of statistically representative data.