Patent ID: 7744705

Claim:
A quaternary or higher group IB-IIIA-VIA alloy having the general formula (I): A(B 1-x C x )(D 1-y E y ) 2 (I) wherein: A is Cu; B is In; C is Ga; D is a first group VIA element (hereinafter referred to as VIA 1 ); E is a second group VIA element (hereinafter referred to as VIA 2 ); and each of x and y independently are from 0 to 1, provided that both x and y are not zero or one at the same time and if x is zero y must be smaller than 1 and if y is zero x must be smaller than one; and the alloy being characterized by an x-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) having a main [112] peak at a 2θ angle (2θ (112) ) of from 26° to 28° for Cu radiation at 40 kV, wherein a glancing incidence x ray diffraction pattern (GIXRD) for glancing angles at 0.5°, 1°, 2°, 5°, and 10° reflects an absolute shift in the 2θ (112) angle of less than 0.06° between any one of such glancing angles and all of the other of such angles considered one at a time.