The influence of different locations of sputter guns on the morphological and structural properties of Cu–In–Ga precursors and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films

The influence of two different locations of sputter guns on the morphological and structural properties of Cu–In–Ga precursors and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin films was investigated. All the precursors contained cauliflower-like nodules, whereas smaller subnodules were observed on the background. All the precursors revealed apparent three-layered structures, and voids were observed at the CIGS/SLG interface of Sets 1 and 2 films rather than Set 3 film. EDS results indicated that all CIGS thin films were Cu-deficient. Based on the grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) patterns, as-selenized films showed peaks corresponding to the chalcopyrite-type CIGS structure. Depth-resolved Raman spectra showed the formation of a dominant CIGS phase inside the films for all the as-selenized samples investigated, and of an ordered vacancy compound (OVC) phase like Cu(In,Ga)3Se5 or Cu(In,Ga)2Se3.5 at the surface and/or CIGS/SLG interface region of Sets 2 and 3 films. No evidence was obtained on the presence of an OVC phase in Set 1 CIGS film, which may be speculated that long-time annealing is contributed to suppress the growth of OVC phases. The results of the present work suggest that the metallic precursors deposited with the upright-location sputter gun might be more appropriate to prepare CIGS thin films than those sputtered with the titled-location gun.