Issue Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. Volume 46, Number 1, April 2009 International Symposium on Flexible Organic Electronics (IS-FOE) Article Number 12508 Number of page(s) 6 Section Topical Issue International Symposium on Flexible Organic Electronics (IS-FOE) DOI 10.1051/epjap/2009029 Published online 10 March 2009

Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 46, 12508 (2009)
DOI: 10.1051/epjap/2009029

Laser structuring of thin-film solar cells on polymers

P. Gečys¹, G. Račiukaitis¹, M. Gedvilas¹ and A. Selskis<sup>2

1</sup>  Laboratory for Applied Research, Institute of Physics, Savanoriu Ave. 231, 02300 Vilnius, Lithuania
²  Institute of Chemistry, A. Goštauto 9, 01108 Vilnius, Lithuania

graciukaitis@ar.fi.lt

Received: 20 October 2008 / Accepted: 26 January 2009 / Published online: 10 March 2009

Abstract
A permanent growth of the thin-film electronics market stimulates the development of versatile technologies for patterning thin-film materials on flexible substrates. High repetition rate lasers with a short pulse duration offer new possibilities for high efficiency structuring of conducting, semi-conducting and isolating films. Lasers with the picosecond pulse duration were applied in structuring the complex multilayered Cu(InGa)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cells deposited on the polyimide substrate. The wavelength of laser radiation was adjusted depending on optical properties both of the film and the substrate. A narrow processing window of laser fluence and pulse overlap was estimated with both 1064 nm and 355 nm irradiation to remove the molybdenum backcontact off the substrate. The selective removal of ITO, ZnO and CIGS layers was achieved with 355 nm irradiation in the multilayer structure of CIGS without significant damage to the underneath layers. Use of the flat-top laser beam profile should prevent inhomogeneity in ablation. The EDS analysis did not show residues of molybdenum projected onto the walls of ablated channel due to melt extrusion. Processing with picosecond lasers should not cause degradation of photo-electrical properties of the solar cells but verification is required.

PACS
42.62.Cf - Industrial applications.
81.40.Wx - Radiation treatment.
81.05.Hd - Other semiconductors.
89.30.Cc - Solar power.
68.65.Ac - Multilayers.
68.37.Hk - Scanning electron microscopy.

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