Fabrication of Regularly Arranged Chalcopyrite Micro Solar Cells via Femtosecond Laser-Induced Forward Transfer for Concentrator Application

A laser-based bottom-up technique for the fabrication of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGSe) micro solar cells is presented. We use femtosecond laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) to transport a metallic precursor composed of copper, indium, and gallium onto a molybdenum back contact layer on a glass substrate. A CIGSe absorber forms by subsequent selenization. An array of micro absorbers with defined spacing is fabricated to solar cells and characterized under concentrated light illumination. The solar cell array exhibited a conversion efficiency of 1.4‰ at 1 sun as well as a significant efficiency enhancement of 68% rel. under 20-fold concentration. This work demonstrates the possibility of directly grown micrometer-sized solar cells based on chalcogenide absorber layers, enabling effective material usage.