Thin CIGS cells: enhanced absorption and reduced contact recombination

Major sources of efficiency loss in CIGS solar cells are optical losses through reflection and recombination losses at the Mo contact. These losses become increasingly important for thinner cells of 1 micron and less. In our process we are able to reduce those losses by using textured substrates and introduction of a passivation AlOx layer between absorber layer and Mo contact. 2D simulations that we carried out show the potential for high efficiency with thin - textured - partially contacted - electronically passivated devices.