TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of Thermochemical Treatment on CuSbS2 Photovoltaic Absorber Quality and Solar Cell Reproducibility
AU - Zakutayev, Andriy
AU - Welch, Adam
AU - Dippo, Patricia
AU - de Souza Lucas, Francisco
AU - Hempel, Hannes
AU - Unold, Thomas
AU - Eichberger, Rainer
AU - Blank, Beatrix
AU - Rau, Uwe
AU - Mascaro, Lucia
AU - Baranowski, Lauryn
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2016/8/25
Y1 - 2016/8/25
N2 - CuSbS2 is a promising nontoxic and earth-abundant photovoltaic absorber that is chemically simpler than the widely studied Cu2ZnSnS4. However, CuSbS2 photovoltaic (PV) devices currently have relatively low efficiency and poor reproducibility, often due to suboptimal material quality and insufficient optoelectronic properties. To address these issues, here we develop a thermochemical treatment (TT) for CuSbS2 thin films, which consists of annealing in Sb2S3 vapor followed by a selective KOH surface chemical etch. The annealed CuSbS2 films show improved structural quality and optoelectronic properties, such as stronger band-edge photoluminescence and longer photoexcited carrier lifetime. These improvements also lead to more reproducible CuSbS2 PV devices, with performance currently limited by a large cliff-type interface band offset with CdS contact. Overall, these results point to the potential avenues to further increase the performance of CuSbS2 thin film solar cell, and the findings can be transferred to other thin film photovoltaic technologies.
AB - CuSbS2 is a promising nontoxic and earth-abundant photovoltaic absorber that is chemically simpler than the widely studied Cu2ZnSnS4. However, CuSbS2 photovoltaic (PV) devices currently have relatively low efficiency and poor reproducibility, often due to suboptimal material quality and insufficient optoelectronic properties. To address these issues, here we develop a thermochemical treatment (TT) for CuSbS2 thin films, which consists of annealing in Sb2S3 vapor followed by a selective KOH surface chemical etch. The annealed CuSbS2 films show improved structural quality and optoelectronic properties, such as stronger band-edge photoluminescence and longer photoexcited carrier lifetime. These improvements also lead to more reproducible CuSbS2 PV devices, with performance currently limited by a large cliff-type interface band offset with CdS contact. Overall, these results point to the potential avenues to further increase the performance of CuSbS2 thin film solar cell, and the findings can be transferred to other thin film photovoltaic technologies.
KW - copper antimony sulfide
KW - photovoltaic absorbers
KW - thermochemical treatment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84984602112&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b04206
DO - 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b04206
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84984602112
SN - 1932-7447
VL - 120
SP - 18377
EP - 18385
JO - Journal of Physical Chemistry C
JF - Journal of Physical Chemistry C
IS - 33
ER -
