Metastable variations of the fill factor in CIGS thin film solar cells

Abstract

We investigate the origin of fill factor changes induced by reverse bias treatment. Evolution of current-voltage characteristics have been measured during application of reverse voltage bias. Two different cell behaviors have been identified. At elevated temperatures one kind of the devices strongly deteriorates and exhibit so called double diode behavior. On the other hand, in the same conditions another cells keep their fill factor almost constant. We correlate the fill factor changes with the kinetics of capacitance and show that although increased number of shallow acceptors itself cannot induce this severe FF deterioration, it may strongly influence position of the Fermi level at the heterointerface that in a presence of an electron barrier is crucial for the device behavior.