Expanding the Notch Region by Adjusting the Copper Growth Profile for High-Efficiency Flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ Solar Cells

Flexible CIGS solar cells, with their adjustable band gap for future flexible tandem solar cells and flexibility for roll-to-roll manufacturing, have the potential to be used in a wide range of applications. However, flexible CIGS solar cells are always manufactured at relatively low temperatures, where Cu diffusion has a substantial impact on the CIGS surface state and defect formation. To address these issues, we designed a new CIGS growth profile in this work by carefully examining the effects of different locations of excess Cu in the third stage of the CIGS deposition profile. The results showed that adding more Cu to the middle part of the third stage can enhance the crystal quality, expand the GGI grading notch region, move the GGI minimum to the CdS side, cause a <i>J</i>_SC rise, achieve proper band alignment at the interface, and then enhance the FF. By taking advantage of these advantages, the photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) is significantly raised. An impressive improvement of 32.6% over the initial efficiency of 13.8% has been attained, yielding a high efficiency of 18.3% and providing a strong basis for the development of flexible CIGS solar cells.