Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers

Welch, Adam W.; Baranowski, Lauryn L.; Peng, Haowei; Hempel, Hannes; Eichberger, Rainer; Unold, Thomas; Lany, Stephan; Wolden, Colin; Zakutayev, Andriy

doi:10.1002/aenm.201601935

Title: Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers

Journal Article · Wed Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Advanced Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201601935· OSTI ID:1364055

Welch, Adam W. ^[1]; Baranowski, Lauryn L. ^[1]; Peng, Haowei ^[2]; Hempel, Hannes ^[3]; Eichberger, Rainer ^[3]; Unold, Thomas ^[3]; Lany, Stephan ^[2]; Wolden, Colin ^[4]; Zakutayev, Andriy ^[2]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Berlin (Germany)
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)

Discovery of novel semiconducting materials is needed for solar energy conversion and other optoelectronic applications. However, emerging low‐dimensional solar absorbers often have unconventional crystal structures and unusual combinations of optical absorption and electrical transport properties, which considerably slows down the research and development progress. Here, the effect of stronger absorption and weaker carrier collection of 2D‐like absorber materials are studied using a high‐throughput combinatorial experimental approach, complemented by advanced characterization and computations. It is found that the photoexcited charge carrier collection in CuSbSe ₂ solar cells is enhanced by drift in an electric field, addressing a different absorption/collection balance. The resulting drift solar cells efficiency is <5% due to inherent J _SC / V _OC trade‐off, suggesting that improved carrier diffusion and better contacts are needed to further increase the CuSbSe ₂ performance. This study also illustrates the advantages of high‐throughput experimental methods for fast optimization of the optoelectronic devices based on emerging low‐dimensional semiconductor materials.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1364055

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1400606

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5K00-67269

Journal Information:: Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 11; ISSN 1614-6832

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 46 works

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Reactive close-spaced sublimation processed CuSbSe ₂ thin films and their photovoltaic application Wang, Chong; Yang, Bo; Ding, Ruiqing APL Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5028415	journal	August 2018
Simulation studies on photovoltaic response of ultrathin CuSb(S/Se) ₂ ternary compound semiconductors absorber‐based single junction solar cells Gupta, Goutam Kumar; Dixit, Ambesh International Journal of Energy Research, Vol. 44, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1002/er.5158	journal	April 2020
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Research Update: Emerging chalcostibite absorbers for thin-film solar cells de Souza Lucas, Francisco Willian; Zakutayev, Andriy APL Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5027862	journal	August 2018
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Multimodal characterization of solution-processed Cu ₃ SbS ₄ absorbers for thin film solar cells Albuquerque, Gustavo H.; Kim, Ki-Joong; Lopez, Jonathon I. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 6, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ta00001h	journal	January 2018
Enhanced piezoelectric response of AlN via CrN alloying Manna, Sukriti; Talley, Kevin R.; Gorai, Prashun arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1708.00490	text	January 2017

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Title: Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers

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