Heavy Alkali Treatment of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells: Surface versus Bulk Effects [* Cross-Reference *]

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Susanne Siebentritt; Enrico Avancini; Marcus Bär; Jakob Bombsch; Emilie Bourgeois; Stephan Buecheler; Romain Carron; Célia Castro; S. Duguay; Roberto Félix; Evelyn Handick; Dimitrios Hariskos; Ville Havu; Philip Jackson; Hannu‐Pekka Komsa; Thomas Kunze; Maria Malitckaya; R. Menozzi; Miloš Nesládek; Nicoleta Nicoara; M. J. Puska; Mohit Raghuwanshi; P. Pareige; Sascha Sadewasser; Giovanna Sozzi; Ayodhya N. Tiwari; Shigenori Ueda; Arantxa Vilalta‐Clemente; Thomas Paul Weiss; Florian Werner; Regan G. Wilks; Wolfram Witte; Max Hilaire Wolter, 2026, "Heavy Alkali Treatment of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells: Surface versus Bulk Effects [* Cross-Reference *]", https://lore.list.lu/citation?persistentId=perma:LIST.DIMT5Y, LIST Open Repository, V1

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Description	Chalcopyrite solar cells achieve efficiencies above 23%. The latest improvements are due to post-deposition treatments (PDT) with heavy alkalis. This study provides a comprehensive description of the effect of PDT on the chemical and electronic structure of surface and bulk of Cu(In,Ga)Se2. Chemical changes at the surface appear similar, independent of absorber or alkali. However, the effect on the surface electronic structure differs with absorber or type of treatment, although the improvement of the solar cell efficiency is the same. Thus, changes at the surface cannot be the only effect of the PDT treatment. The main effect of PDT with heavy alkalis concerns bulk recombination. The reduction in bulk recombination goes along with a reduced density of electronic tail states. Improvements in open-circuit voltage appear together with reduced band bending at grain boundaries. Heavy alkalis accumulate at grain boundaries and are not detected in the grains. This behavior is understood by the energetics of the formation of single-phase Cu-alkali compounds. Thus, the efficiency improvement with heavy alkali PDT can be attributed to reduced band bending at grain boundaries, which reduces tail states and nonradiative recombination and is caused by accumulation of heavy alkalis at grain boundaries. (2020-01-30) *This entry has been automatically imported via OpenAlex by LIST harvest scripts. Please refer to https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201903752 for the original and latest version of the publication* (2026-07-01)
Subject	Engineering; Physics
Keyword	Grain boundary, Materials science, Band bending, Alkali metal, Recombination, Solar cell, Chemical physics, Chalcopyrite, Grain size, Microstructure, Optoelectronics, Composite material, Metallurgy, Copper, Chemistry
License/Data Use Agreement	CC BY 4.0


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Persistent Identifier	perma:LIST.DIMT5Y
Publication Date	2026-07-06
Title	Heavy Alkali Treatment of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells: Surface versus Bulk Effects [* Cross-Reference *]
Other Identifier	https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201903752 OpenAlex ID: https://openalex.org/W3003704493
Author	Susanne Siebentritt (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6522-1427 Enrico Avancini (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1309-1290 Marcus Bär (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8581-0691 Jakob Bombsch (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0820-162X Emilie Bourgeois (Hasselt University) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3668-1202 Stephan Buecheler (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0942-9965 Romain Carron (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8281-4881 Célia Castro (Normandie Université, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Université de Rouen Normandie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5492-1978 S. Duguay (Normandie Université, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Université de Rouen Normandie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7039-6018 Roberto Félix (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3620-9899 Evelyn Handick (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9773-9981 Dimitrios Hariskos (Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4867-1578 Ville Havu (Aalto University) Philip Jackson (Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9486-3354 Hannu‐Pekka Komsa (Aalto University) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0970-0957 Thomas Kunze (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie) Maria Malitckaya (Aalto University) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8378-0839 R. Menozzi (University of Parma) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3867-3302 Miloš Nesládek (Hasselt University) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0215-5033 Nicoleta Nicoara (International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0909-4635 M. J. Puska (Aalto University) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8419-3289 Mohit Raghuwanshi (Normandie Université, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Université de Rouen Normandie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4352-072X P. Pareige (Normandie Université, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Université de Rouen Normandie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5468-0887 Sascha Sadewasser (International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8384-6025 Giovanna Sozzi (University of Parma) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4884-2843 Ayodhya N. Tiwari (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8078-5965 Shigenori Ueda (National Institute for Materials Science, SPring-8) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9425-0614 Arantxa Vilalta‐Clemente (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d'Aérotechnique, Institut Pprime, Université de Poitiers, Normandie Université, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Université de Rouen Normandie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7511-5193 Thomas Paul Weiss (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1823-4481 Florian Werner (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6901-8901 Regan G. Wilks (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5822-8399 Wolfram Witte (Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9429-506X Max Hilaire Wolter (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9202-7627
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Description	Chalcopyrite solar cells achieve efficiencies above 23%. The latest improvements are due to post-deposition treatments (PDT) with heavy alkalis. This study provides a comprehensive description of the effect of PDT on the chemical and electronic structure of surface and bulk of Cu(In,Ga)Se2. Chemical changes at the surface appear similar, independent of absorber or alkali. However, the effect on the surface electronic structure differs with absorber or type of treatment, although the improvement of the solar cell efficiency is the same. Thus, changes at the surface cannot be the only effect of the PDT treatment. The main effect of PDT with heavy alkalis concerns bulk recombination. The reduction in bulk recombination goes along with a reduced density of electronic tail states. Improvements in open-circuit voltage appear together with reduced band bending at grain boundaries. Heavy alkalis accumulate at grain boundaries and are not detected in the grains. This behavior is understood by the energetics of the formation of single-phase Cu-alkali compounds. Thus, the efficiency improvement with heavy alkali PDT can be attributed to reduced band bending at grain boundaries, which reduces tail states and nonradiative recombination and is caused by accumulation of heavy alkalis at grain boundaries. (2020-01-30) *This entry has been automatically imported via OpenAlex by LIST harvest scripts. Please refer to https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201903752 for the original and latest version of the publication* (2026-07-01)
Subject	Engineering; Physics
Keyword	Grain boundary Materials science Band bending Alkali metal Recombination Solar cell Chemical physics Chalcopyrite Grain size Microstructure Optoelectronics Composite material Metallurgy Copper Chemistry
Topic Classification	Chalcogenide Semiconductor Thin Films Quantum Dots Synthesis And Properties Copper-based nanomaterials and applications
Deposit Date	2020-01-30
Data Type	Article
Data Source	Advanced Energy Materials

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