Copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) is a I-

III III or iii may refer to: Companies * Information International, Inc., a computer technology company * Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library-software company * 3i, formerly Investors in Industry, a British investment company Other uses * Ins ...

- VI₂ semiconductor material composed of copper, indium,

gallium Gallium is a chemical element with the symbol Ga and atomic number 31. Discovered by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, Gallium is in group 13 of the periodic table and is similar to the other metals of the group (aluminiu ...

, and selenium. The material is a solid solution of copper indium selenide (often abbreviated "CIS") and copper gallium selenide. It has a chemical formula of CuIn_1−''x''Ga_''x''Se₂, where the value of ''x'' can vary from 0 (pure copper indium selenide) to 1 (pure copper gallium selenide). CIGS is a tetrahedrally bonded semiconductor, with the chalcopyrite crystal structure, and a bandgap varying continuously with ''x'' from about 1.0 eV (for copper indium selenide) to about 1.7 eV (for copper gallium selenide).

Structure

CIGS is a tetrahedrally bonded semiconductor, with the chalcopyrite crystal structure. Upon heating it transforms to the zincblende form and the transition temperature decreases from 1045 °C for ''x'' = 0 to 805 °C for ''x'' = 1.

Applications

It is best known as the material for CIGS solar cells a

thin-film technology A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer (monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many ap ...

used in the

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

industry. In this role, CIGS has the advantage of being able to be deposited on flexible substrate materials, producing highly flexible, lightweight

solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

s. Improvements in efficiency have made CIGS an established technology among alternative cell materials.

References

{{Selenides Semiconductor materials Copper(I) compounds Indium compounds Gallium compounds Selenides Renewable energy Dichalcogenides

Structure

Applications

See also

References