GD-OES and XPS coupling: A new way for the chemical profiling of photovoltaic absorbers

•The coupling between GD-OES and XPS analysis is a promising way for fine characterization of thin layers.•Crater surface modifications obtained after GD-OES sputtering depend to the plasma gas.•Inversion of the gas flow improves the surface of the crater.•The modified layer is totally eliminated a few seconds after restarting GD-OES sputtering. In this paper, we examine the complementarity of Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy (GD-OES) and X Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) for the realization of fine chemical depth profiling of photovoltaic absorbers using Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) materials. The possibility to use sequentially these two techniques is discussed in this paper. We have evaluated the chemical modifications of the crater after GD-OES analyses which depend on the manner of finishing the plasma etching sequence; and we propose different ways to limit or eliminate this effect. For the moment, an intermediate step (wet chemical etching or weak sputtering) is required to obtain a CIGS phase in the crater. Finally, we have demonstrated the possibility to restart the GD-OES analyses of the materials after XPS quantification or GD-OES breaking without modifying the profile shape.