Beyond 11% efficient sulfide kesterite Cu2ZnxCd1–xSnS4 solar cell: Effects of cadmium alloying
Abstract
Here, kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin-film solar cells have drawn worldwide attention because of outstanding performance and earth-abundant constituents. However, problems such as coexistence of complex secondary phases, the band tailing issue, short minority lifetime, bulk defects, and undesirable band alignment at p-n interfaces need to be addressed for further efficiency improvement. In this regard, Cd alloying shows promise for dealing with some of these problems. In this work, a beyond 11% efficient Cd-alloyed CZTS solar cell is achieved, and the effects of Cd-alloying and mechanism underpinning the performance improvement have been investigated. The introduction of Cd can significantly reduce the band tailing issue, which is confirmed by the reduction in the difference between the photoluminescence peak and optical band gap (Eg) as well as decreased Urbach energy. The microstructure, minority lifetime, and electrical properties of CZTS absorber are greatly improved by Cd alloying. Further XPS analyses show that the partial Cd alloying slightly reduces the band gap of CZTS via elevating the valence band maximum of CZTS. This suggests that there are opportunities for further efficiency improvement by engineering the absorber and the associated interface with the buffer.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (Australia)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Central South Univ., ChangSha (China)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1360662
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5K00-68607
Journal ID: ISSN 2380-8195
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Energy Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2380-8195
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; thin film solar cells; efficiency; alloying; performance
Citation Formats
Yan, Chang, Sun, Kaiwen, Huang, Jialiang, Johnston, Steve, Liu, Fangyang, Veettil, Binesh Puthen, Sun, Kaile, Pu, Aobo, Zhou, Fangzhou, Stride, John A., Green, Martin A., and Hao, Xiaojing. Beyond 11% efficient sulfide kesterite Cu2ZnxCd1–xSnS4 solar cell: Effects of cadmium alloying. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00129.
Yan, Chang, Sun, Kaiwen, Huang, Jialiang, Johnston, Steve, Liu, Fangyang, Veettil, Binesh Puthen, Sun, Kaile, Pu, Aobo, Zhou, Fangzhou, Stride, John A., Green, Martin A., & Hao, Xiaojing. Beyond 11% efficient sulfide kesterite Cu2ZnxCd1–xSnS4 solar cell: Effects of cadmium alloying. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00129
Yan, Chang, Sun, Kaiwen, Huang, Jialiang, Johnston, Steve, Liu, Fangyang, Veettil, Binesh Puthen, Sun, Kaile, Pu, Aobo, Zhou, Fangzhou, Stride, John A., Green, Martin A., and Hao, Xiaojing. Mon .
"Beyond 11% efficient sulfide kesterite Cu2ZnxCd1–xSnS4 solar cell: Effects of cadmium alloying". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00129. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1360662.
@article{osti_1360662,
title = {Beyond 11% efficient sulfide kesterite Cu2ZnxCd1–xSnS4 solar cell: Effects of cadmium alloying},
author = {Yan, Chang and Sun, Kaiwen and Huang, Jialiang and Johnston, Steve and Liu, Fangyang and Veettil, Binesh Puthen and Sun, Kaile and Pu, Aobo and Zhou, Fangzhou and Stride, John A. and Green, Martin A. and Hao, Xiaojing},
abstractNote = {Here, kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin-film solar cells have drawn worldwide attention because of outstanding performance and earth-abundant constituents. However, problems such as coexistence of complex secondary phases, the band tailing issue, short minority lifetime, bulk defects, and undesirable band alignment at p-n interfaces need to be addressed for further efficiency improvement. In this regard, Cd alloying shows promise for dealing with some of these problems. In this work, a beyond 11% efficient Cd-alloyed CZTS solar cell is achieved, and the effects of Cd-alloying and mechanism underpinning the performance improvement have been investigated. The introduction of Cd can significantly reduce the band tailing issue, which is confirmed by the reduction in the difference between the photoluminescence peak and optical band gap (Eg) as well as decreased Urbach energy. The microstructure, minority lifetime, and electrical properties of CZTS absorber are greatly improved by Cd alloying. Further XPS analyses show that the partial Cd alloying slightly reduces the band gap of CZTS via elevating the valence band maximum of CZTS. This suggests that there are opportunities for further efficiency improvement by engineering the absorber and the associated interface with the buffer.},
doi = {10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00129},
journal = {ACS Energy Letters},
number = 4,
volume = 2,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Mon Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
Web of Science
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