A Two-Step Absorber Deposition Approach To Overcome Shunt Losses in Thin-Film Solar Cells: Using Tin Sulfide as a Proof-of-Concept Material System
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
As novel absorber materials are developed and screened for their photovoltaic (PV) properties, the challenge remains to reproducibly test promising candidates for high-performing PV devices. Many early-stage devices are prone to device shunting due to pinholes in the absorber layer, producing “false-negative” results. We demonstrate a device engineering solution toward a robust device architecture, using a two-step absorber deposition approach. We use tin sulfide (SnS) as a test absorber material. The SnS bulk is processed at high temperature (400 °C) to stimulate grain growth, followed by a much thinner, low-temperature (200 °C) absorber deposition. At a lower process temperature, the thin absorber overlayer contains significantly smaller, densely packed grains, which are likely to provide a continuous coating and fill pinholes in the underlying absorber bulk. We compare this two-step approach to the more standard approach of using a semi-insulating buffer layer directly on top of the annealed absorber bulk, and we demonstrate a more than 3.5× superior shunt resistance Rsh with smaller standard error σRsh. Electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) measurements indicate a lower density of pinholes in the SnS absorber bulk when using the two-step absorber deposition approach. We correlate those findings to improvements in the device performance and device performance reproducibility.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308; EE0005329
- OSTI ID:
- 1325511
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5J00-67109
- Journal Information:
- ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 8, Issue 34; ISSN 1944-8244
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Kinetically Controlled Growth of Phase-Pure SnS Absorbers for Thin Film Solar Cells: Achieving Efficiency Near 3% with Long-Term Stability Using an SnS/CdS Heterojunction
|
journal | January 2018 |
Solvent-Antisolvent Ambient Processed Large Grain Size Perovskite Thin Films for High-Performance Solar Cells
|
journal | August 2018 |
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