SiO x patterned based substrates implemented in Cu(In, Ga)Se 2 ultrathin solar cells: optimum thickness

Interface recombination in sub-µm optoelectronic devices has a major harmful impact in devices performance, showing the need for tailored passivation strategies in order to reach a technological boost. In this work, SiOx based substrates were developed and integrated in ultrathin CIGS solar cells. This study aims at understanding the impact of several SiOx layer thicknesses (3, 8 and 25 nm) when this material is used as a passivation layer. Analysing their electrical parameters, the 8 nm novel SiOx based substrates achieved light to power conversion efficiency values up to 13.2%, a 1.3% absolute improvement over the conventional substrate (without SiOx).