Compositional investigation of potassium doped Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells with efficiencies up to 20.8%
Thin-film solar technologies used to advertise their cause with lower production costs. Now Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin-film solar cells, in addition, have reached a high efficiency level with a new record efficiency of 20.8 %. With this new achievement by researchers of the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), Germany, CIGS even outperforms the current record for multicrystalline silicon solar cells. Decisive in the establishment of this high efficiency level was the application of a new doping procedure.
The investigation of this doping effect has revealed a further positive potential for CIGS technology since it not only increases device efficiencies but also appears to open a new pathway towards higher band gap CIGS solar cells. The potential lies in an increase in device efficiency, in a better integration capability of CIGS modules in mixed technology solar systems, and in an improved reliability.
The Rapid Research Letter by Philip Jackson et al. has been published in the steady photovoltaics and solar sell section rrl solar which was recently launched in physica status solidi (RRL), the fastest peer-reviewed publication medium in solid state and materials physics (see Editorial – http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pssr.201370453/abstract).
