ABSTRACT
The material, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) has attracted
intense research within the PV community due to its high potential
in thin-film solar cell development. This has been demonstrated
by the report of 19.5% conversion efficiency in the year 2005
for lab-scale solar cell devices [1]. The efficiency has increased to
20.3% in 2010 [2], showing the gradual progress in the research
and development front. However, further development of this
device has been slow due to inadequate understanding in complex
material issues, processing steps, and underlying solid-state physics
principles of the device. This chapter summarises the current
knowledge in these areas and proposes an improved device concept
to describe the photovoltaic action of CIGS-based solar cells. Possible
ways forward for further development of CIGS solar cells are also
proposed.
