Investigation of the ablation of zinc oxide thin films on copper-indium-selenide layers by ps laser pulses

The selective laser structuring of zinc oxide thin films, which serve as the transparent negative electrodes of copper-indium-selenide (CIS) thin film solar cells, is of great common interest as it can replace the mechanical scribing of the so-called pattern 3 (P3) process step for the monolithic serial interconnection of these cells. We present an investigation of the single-pulse ablation behavior of zinc oxide thin films on glass substrates and on CIS layers and of trench scribing with 10-ps laser pulses at 1064 nm and at 532 nm. We show that the ablation behavior strongly depends on the properties of the underling substrate and that the energy required to ablate a specific volume using induced laser processes (often referred to as 'lift off') is considerably reduced compared to the direct ablation of zinc oxide. With laser powers below 2 W at a wavelength of 1064 nm process speeds of 6 m/s for the P3 process have been achieved.