Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
- 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)
- 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:
- 1364055
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1400606
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5K00-67269
Journal ID: ISSN 1614-6832
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Energy Materials
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 1614-6832
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 2D materials; combinatorial experiments; density functional theory; photovoltaic absorbers; time-resolved spectroscopy
Citation Formats
Welch, Adam W., Baranowski, Lauryn L., Peng, Haowei, Hempel, Hannes, Eichberger, Rainer, Unold, Thomas, Lany, Stephan, Wolden, Colin, and Zakutayev, Andriy. Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/aenm.201601935.
Welch, Adam W., Baranowski, Lauryn L., Peng, Haowei, Hempel, Hannes, Eichberger, Rainer, Unold, Thomas, Lany, Stephan, Wolden, Colin, & Zakutayev, Andriy. Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201601935
Welch, Adam W., Baranowski, Lauryn L., Peng, Haowei, Hempel, Hannes, Eichberger, Rainer, Unold, Thomas, Lany, Stephan, Wolden, Colin, and Zakutayev, Andriy. Wed .
"Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201601935. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1364055.
@article{osti_1364055,
title = {Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers},
author = {Welch, Adam W. and Baranowski, Lauryn L. and Peng, Haowei and Hempel, Hannes and Eichberger, Rainer and Unold, Thomas and Lany, Stephan and Wolden, Colin and Zakutayev, Andriy},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1002/aenm.201601935},
journal = {Advanced Energy Materials},
number = 11,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Wed Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
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