Chalcopyrite thin film solar cells by electrodeposition D. Lincot a, * , J.F. Guillemoles a , S. Taunier a , D. Guimard a , J. Sicx-Kurdi a , A. Chaumont a , O. Roussel a , O. Ramdani a , C. Hubert a , J.P. Fauvarque a , N. Bodereau a , L. Parissi a , P. Panheleux a , P. Fanouillere a , N. Naghavi a , P.P. Grand a , M. Benfarah a , P. Mogensen b , O. Kerrec a a Laboratoire Cellules Solaires en Couches Minces (EDF-CNRS/ENSCP/UMR7575), Plateau CISEL, 6 Quai Watier-BP 49, 78401 Chatou cedex, France b Saint-Gobain Recherche, Aubervilliers, France Received 27 January 2004; accepted 20 May 2004 Available online 30 October 2004 Communicated by: Associate Editor T.M. Razykov Abstract Thispaperreviewsthestateoftheartinusingelectrodepositiontopreparechalcopyriteabsorberlayersinthinfilm solarcells.MostofthestudiesdealwiththedirectpreparationofCu(In,Ga)Se 2 films,andshowthattheintroductionof galliuminthefilmsisnowbecomingpossiblefromsinglebathcontainingalltheelements.Electrodepositioncanalsobe used to form precursor films with stacked layer structures, of pure elements or of combinations with binary or even ternary films. Thermal annealing treatments are of dramatic importance to provide suitable electronic quality to the layers. They are often done in the presence of a chalcogen (selenium or sulfur) over pressure and there is a tendency to use rapid thermal processes. Less studies are devoted to complete solar cell formation. Significant progresses have been made in the recent period with several groups achieving cell efficiencies around 8–10% on different substrates. A record efficiency of 11.3% is reported for a cell with an absorber presenting a band gap of 1.47eV. First results on the manufacturability of the corresponding process to large areas are presented. Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: CuInSe 2 ; Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 ; Electrodeposition; Solar cell; Chalcopyrite 1. Introduction Itismoreandmorerecognizedthatphotovoltaiccon- versionofsolarenergyhastobecomeassoonaspossible amajorsourceoftheworldenergysupplyinthefuture. The photovoltaic industry will be a major industry pro- ducing solar modules with the square km as a reference areaunit.Allmaturetechnologies,eitherbasedonsilicon or on thin film chalcogenides (CIGS or CdTe), aim to reach this objective. For this, a key point is to develop large area processing at low module production costs while maintaining, or better, increasing the conversion efficiencies. Junctions based on Cu(In,Ga,Al)(S,Se) 2 chalcopyrite absorbers have already demonstrated high conversion efficiencies and compatibility with large area 0038-092X/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.solener.2004.05.024 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 1 5542 6377; fax: +33 1 4427 6750. E-mail address: lincot@ext.jussieu.fr (D. Lincot). Solar Energy 77 (2004) 725–737 www.elsevier.com/locate/solener