Germany's solar cell research has made important progress

Yangon thin film battery production costs are low, and its market share continues to grow in recent years. At present, the highest photoelectric conversion rate is copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar thin-film battery, which can reach 20%, but is still far from the theoretical value exceeding 30%. The main difficulty is that the distribution and proportion of indium and gallium in the material are difficult to achieve. To achieve the desired value.

Researchers at the University of Mainz collaborated with IBM's Mainz division in Germany and Germany's SCHOTT GmbH, which produces specialty glass, and used computer simulation programs to find that the indium gallium separation temperature of copper indium gallium selenide materials is slightly lower than normal. In the case of room temperature, indium gallium is completely separated and unevenly distributed, resulting in a reduction in the photoelectric effect of the material. Above this temperature, indium gallium will fuse with each other, and the higher the temperature, the more uniform it will be distributed. This shows that the solar thin film battery production process requires a higher temperature, as long as the final cooling step is fast enough to "fix" the uniformity.

In the past, the production process was limited by the heat resistance of the necessary glass substrate, and the temperature could not be increased. For this purpose SCHOTT developed a special glass material that can withstand temperatures exceeding 600 degrees Celsius. The researchers said that this achievement is a major breakthrough.

This result was published in the latest issue of the American Physical Review Letters.