Copper Indium Disulphide Research

Copper indium disulphide (CuInS₂) is one of a number of promising materials for future thin film photovoltaic devices. It has the added advantage of potentially being environmentally friendly. The most common, and so far most successful method of depositing CuInS₂ is to use a two stage process; sputter deposition of CuIn films followed by a high temperature sulphurisation step using hydrogen sulphide. This has an obvious environmental drawback and also requires the cell to be produced in the superstrate configuration – usually glass, Mo, CuInS₂, CdS, ZnO.

Our project will use the electrostatically assisted spray process to deposit CuInS₂ films in a single step whilst minimising waste (of the chemical solution). In addition to removing the need to anneal in hydrogen sulphide, previous trials have shown that the KCn etch to remove surface Cu_xS phases may not be required with sprayed CuInS₂ films. A secondary aim is to replace the CdS with electrostatically sprayed ZnS and alter the cell configuration thus – glass, TCO, ZnS, CuInS₂.