Ha Kyung Park, Kanghoon Yim, Jiyoon Lee, Yunae Cho, Inyoung Jeong, Donghyeop Shin, Jihye Gwak, Aron Walsh, Kihwan Kim, William Jo
{"title":"Interplay between strain and charge in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 flexible photovoltaics","authors":"Ha Kyung Park, Kanghoon Yim, Jiyoon Lee, Yunae Cho, Inyoung Jeong, Donghyeop Shin, Jihye Gwak, Aron Walsh, Kihwan Kim, William Jo","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00347-7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Flexible and lightweight Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin-film solar cells are promising for versatile applications, but there is limited understanding of stress-induced changes. In this study, the charge carrier generation and trapping behavior under mechanical stress was investigated using flexible CIGS thin-film solar cells with various alkali treatments. Surface current at the CIGS surface decreased by convex bending, which occurs less with the incorporation of alkali metals. The formation energy of the carrier generating defects increased in convex bending environments clarifying the degradation of the surface current. Moreover, alkali-related defects had lower formation energy than the intrinsic acceptors, mitigating current degradation in mechanical stress condition. The altered defect energy levels were attributed to the deformation of the crystal structure under bending states. This study provides insights into the mitigating of strain-induced charge degradation for enhancing the performance and robustness of flexible CIGS photovoltaic devices.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":12.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00347-7.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"npj Flexible Electronics","FirstCategoryId":"88","ListUrlMain":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00347-7","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Flexible and lightweight Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin-film solar cells are promising for versatile applications, but there is limited understanding of stress-induced changes. In this study, the charge carrier generation and trapping behavior under mechanical stress was investigated using flexible CIGS thin-film solar cells with various alkali treatments. Surface current at the CIGS surface decreased by convex bending, which occurs less with the incorporation of alkali metals. The formation energy of the carrier generating defects increased in convex bending environments clarifying the degradation of the surface current. Moreover, alkali-related defects had lower formation energy than the intrinsic acceptors, mitigating current degradation in mechanical stress condition. The altered defect energy levels were attributed to the deformation of the crystal structure under bending states. This study provides insights into the mitigating of strain-induced charge degradation for enhancing the performance and robustness of flexible CIGS photovoltaic devices.
期刊介绍:
npj Flexible Electronics is an online-only and open access journal, which publishes high-quality papers related to flexible electronic systems, including plastic electronics and emerging materials, new device design and fabrication technologies, and applications.