Scribing of a-Si thin-film solar cells with picosecond laser

The thin-film technology is the most promising technology to achieve a significant cost reduction in solar electricity. Laser scribing is an important step to preserve high efficiency of photovoltaic devices on large areas. The high-repetition-rate laser with the pulse duration of 10 ps was applied in selective ablation of multilayer thin-film a-Si solar cells deposited on flexible and rigid substrates. Two types of solar cells with flexible and rigid substrates have been investigated. The first type of solar cells was made of 400 nm a-Si layer coated on both sides with 2 $\mu$m transparent ZnO:Al contact layers deposited by CVD technique on the glass plate. The second type of solar cells was made of a flexible polyimide substrate coated with the Al back-contact, a-Si light absorbing layer and the ITO top-contact. Selection of the right laser wavelength is important to keep the energy coupling in a well defined volume at the interlayer interface. Well-defined shapes of scribes were produced by laser ablation through layers of the solar cell on the glass substrate. Localization of the coupled energy at the inner interface led to the “lift-off” type process rather than evaporation of the top ITO layer when the 355 nm radiation was applied. All laser scribes did not indicate any material melting or other thermal damage caused by laser irradiation. Ultra-short picosecond pulses ensured the high energy input rate into absorbing material therefore peeling of the layers had no influence on the remaining material

Laser structuring of thin-film solar cells on polymers

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

On-Line Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles Generated by Laser Ablation in Liquids

AbstractSize of nanoparticles is an important parameter for their applications. To develop the system for the on-line nanoparticle characterization during their production by a laser, the laser ablation chamber that allows measurement of the surface plasmon resonance spectra during nanoparticle generation process has been designed and fabricated. The mean diameter of nanoparticles was determined using their absorption spectra acquired in the real-time during the ablation experiments. The results were compared with the TEM images analysis and observed differences in size are discussed. The technique was applied to investigate the effect of additional laser irradiation on size distribution in gold colloids prepared by laser ablation in water and in aqueous glucose solution