THE GROWTH BY THE HYBRID SPUTTERING AND EVAPORATION METHOD AND MICROSTRUCTURAL STUDIES OF CUINSE2 FILMS

Polycrystalline CuInSe2 was deposited by a hybrid sputtering and evaporation process at various temperatures and compositions. The resulting material was characterized by electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and other techniques. It was shown that the point defect density in CuInSe2 thin films can be decreased and the compositional uniformity of the film increased by raising the growth temperature of the second stage of the bilayer deposition process used. Increasing the temperature results in more pronounced segregation of second phases to the surface. An explanation for the behaviour of Cu2Se surface segregation and precipitate formation is proposed based on residual lattice misfit between the Cu2Se and the CuInSe2 grains.