U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Cu 2 ZnSnSe 4 Photovoltaic Absorber Layers Evaluated by Transmission X‐Ray Microscopy Tomography: Composition Fluctuations on the Length Scale of Grains
Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of Utah 50 Central Campus Drive Salt Lake City UT 84112 USA
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Utah 50 Central Campus Drive Salt Lake City UT 84112 USA
Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory 2575 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park CA 94025 USA
Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory 2575 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park CA 94025 USA
National Renewable Energy Laboratory 15013 Denver West Parkway Golden CO 80401 USA
Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of Utah 50 Central Campus Drive Salt Lake City UT 84112 USA, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Utah 50 Central Campus Drive Salt Lake City UT 84112 USA
The origins of open‐circuit voltage deficits in Cu 2 ZnSnS(e) 4 ‐based solar cells have been an intense topic of research over the past few years as device efficiencies have never approached those of CuInGaSe 2 based cells despite the materials sharing similar crystal and electronic structures. In this work, we use transmission X‐ray microscopy tomography to investigate the length scales over which elemental fluctuations occur. We find and show evidence of micron‐scale Cu to Zn anti‐correlations over a previously inaccessible combination of resolution and sample size that is consistent with the length scale of grains in this material. This result yields further insight into the causes of the large open‐circuit voltage deficits regularly seen in these devices as well as the challenges of achieving compositional homogeneity in this material.
Pruzan, Dennis S., et al. "Cu <sub>2</sub> ZnSnSe <sub>4</sub> Photovoltaic Absorber Layers Evaluated by Transmission X‐Ray Microscopy Tomography: Composition Fluctuations on the Length Scale of Grains." Solar RRL, vol. 1, no. 1, Dec. 2016. https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201600024
Pruzan, Dennis S., Caruso, Anna E., Liu, Yijin, Lin, Yu, Beall, Carolyn, Repins, Ingrid, Toney, Michael F., & Scarpulla, Michael A. (2016). Cu <sub>2</sub> ZnSnSe <sub>4</sub> Photovoltaic Absorber Layers Evaluated by Transmission X‐Ray Microscopy Tomography: Composition Fluctuations on the Length Scale of Grains. Solar RRL, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201600024
Pruzan, Dennis S., Caruso, Anna E., Liu, Yijin, et al., "Cu <sub>2</sub> ZnSnSe <sub>4</sub> Photovoltaic Absorber Layers Evaluated by Transmission X‐Ray Microscopy Tomography: Composition Fluctuations on the Length Scale of Grains," Solar RRL 1, no. 1 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201600024
@article{osti_1401037,
author = {Pruzan, Dennis S. and Caruso, Anna E. and Liu, Yijin and Lin, Yu and Beall, Carolyn and Repins, Ingrid and Toney, Michael F. and Scarpulla, Michael A.},
title = {Cu <sub>2</sub> ZnSnSe <sub>4</sub> Photovoltaic Absorber Layers Evaluated by Transmission X‐Ray Microscopy Tomography: Composition Fluctuations on the Length Scale of Grains},
annote = { The origins of open‐circuit voltage deficits in Cu 2 ZnSnS(e) 4 ‐based solar cells have been an intense topic of research over the past few years as device efficiencies have never approached those of CuInGaSe 2 based cells despite the materials sharing similar crystal and electronic structures. In this work, we use transmission X‐ray microscopy tomography to investigate the length scales over which elemental fluctuations occur. We find and show evidence of micron‐scale Cu to Zn anti‐correlations over a previously inaccessible combination of resolution and sample size that is consistent with the length scale of grains in this material. This result yields further insight into the causes of the large open‐circuit voltage deficits regularly seen in these devices as well as the challenges of achieving compositional homogeneity in this material. },
doi = {10.1002/solr.201600024},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1401037},
journal = {Solar RRL},
issn = {ISSN 2367-198X},
number = {1},
volume = {1},
place = {Germany},
publisher = {Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)},
year = {2016},
month = {12}}