ELSEVIER Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 32 (1994) 213-218 So~r r:nm~ ~ ~ma $o111¢ P.4h Growth of CumlTe 2 films by RF sputtering N. Chahboun, K. El Assali, A. Khiara, E.L. Ameziane, T. Bekkay * Laboratoire de Physique des Solides et des Couches Minces Facult~ des Sciences, Semlalia, BP S.15, Marrakech, Morocco (Received 10 August 1993) Abstract CuAITe 2 films have been grown by RF sputtering on both unheated and heated glass substrates. The X-ray diffraction spectra exhibit one diffraction line at 24.60 ° corresponding to the (112) direction which is the preferred orientation in the chalcopyrite phase. When deposited onto 1500C heated substrates, the formation of binary compounds is favoured. The resistivity variations versus the temperature show a peak around T = 140°C. In order to study the electrical properties of p-type CuAITe 2 samples, ohmic contacts were prepared by RF sputtering of Mo onto these films. 1.1ntroducfion Ternary I-III-VI 2 chalcopyrite semi-conductors have received considerable attention in recent years because of their applications in photovoltaic devices [1-7]. It has been shown that CulnSe 2 exhibit a high conversion efficiency (10-14%) [7-10]. However, there are extensive ranges of these compounds which are not sufficiently explored. I-III-VI 2 thin films have been deposited using various methods: thermal evaporation [11], sputtering [12-14], spray pyrolysis [15-17], and electrodeposition [18-20]. The X-ray diffraction technique is usually used to characterize these films. Two single phases are usually observed: the chalcopyrite phase and the sphalerite phase, with preferential orientation along the (112) direction. Several researches [21-23] have also investigated the electrical and structural properties of CulnSe 2 and CuInS 2 thin films but there are only few studies devoted to CuAITe z. With a band gap of the order of 2.06 eV [24], this material * Corresponding author. 0927-0248/94/$07.00 © 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All fights reserved SSDI 0927-0248(93)E0109-Q