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Title: Effects of thermochemical treatment on CuSbS2 photovoltaic absorber quality and solar cell reproducibility

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [3]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Federal Univ. of Sao Carlos, Sao Carlos (Brazil)
  2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
  3. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  4. Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin fur Materialien und Energie GmbH, Berlin (Germany)
  5. Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, Juelich (Germany)
  6. Federal Univ. of Sao Carlos, Sao Carlos (Brazil)

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. Altogether, 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.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1319282
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--5K00-66168
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry. C Journal Issue: 33 Vol. 120; ISSN 1932-7447
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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