Passivation and thickness control of highly efficient kesterite solar cells
Abstract
Kesterite Cu2ZnSn(SxSe1-x)4 (CZTSSe) is an attractive photovoltaic absorber material because of its tunable bandgap, earth abundance, and low toxicity. However, efficiency and open circuit voltage remain significantly below theoretical limits. We recently showed that back-contact engineering with MoO3/Au on exfoliated vapor-deposited kesterite solar cells can improve device performance. In this work, we demonstrate more promising results, which translate into high power conversion efficiencies of up to 12.2% for solution-deposited CZTSe with thicknesses as low as 1.1 μm. Time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy of exfoliated films showed significantly faster recombination at the back surface than at the front. When atomic layer deposited Al2O3 was used to passivate the exposed back surface of exfoliated films, front and back surfaces showed nearly identical recombination dynamics. After thermally depositing high work function MoO3 and reflective Au as the back contact on the Al2O3-passivated absorber, we obtained devices with efficiencies of up to 11.6%. Applying the same strategy of exfoliating working devices and engineering the back contact resulted in efficiencies of up to 12.2% for passivation with a 10 nm layer of Se instead of Al2O3. Lastly, further development of such passivation and back-contact engineering approaches may lead to higher efficiency devices with absorber thicknesses below 1more »
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
- IBM TJ Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States)
- Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1540221
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1460917
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0006334
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 113; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Citation Formats
Antunez, Priscilla D., Li, Siming, Bishop, Douglas M., Farmer, Damon B., Gershon, Talia S., Baxter, Jason B., and Haight, Richard. Passivation and thickness control of highly efficient kesterite solar cells. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.5037093.
Antunez, Priscilla D., Li, Siming, Bishop, Douglas M., Farmer, Damon B., Gershon, Talia S., Baxter, Jason B., & Haight, Richard. Passivation and thickness control of highly efficient kesterite solar cells. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5037093
Antunez, Priscilla D., Li, Siming, Bishop, Douglas M., Farmer, Damon B., Gershon, Talia S., Baxter, Jason B., and Haight, Richard. Thu .
"Passivation and thickness control of highly efficient kesterite solar cells". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5037093. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1540221.
@article{osti_1540221,
title = {Passivation and thickness control of highly efficient kesterite solar cells},
author = {Antunez, Priscilla D. and Li, Siming and Bishop, Douglas M. and Farmer, Damon B. and Gershon, Talia S. and Baxter, Jason B. and Haight, Richard},
abstractNote = {Kesterite Cu2ZnSn(SxSe1-x)4 (CZTSSe) is an attractive photovoltaic absorber material because of its tunable bandgap, earth abundance, and low toxicity. However, efficiency and open circuit voltage remain significantly below theoretical limits. We recently showed that back-contact engineering with MoO3/Au on exfoliated vapor-deposited kesterite solar cells can improve device performance. In this work, we demonstrate more promising results, which translate into high power conversion efficiencies of up to 12.2% for solution-deposited CZTSe with thicknesses as low as 1.1 μm. Time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy of exfoliated films showed significantly faster recombination at the back surface than at the front. When atomic layer deposited Al2O3 was used to passivate the exposed back surface of exfoliated films, front and back surfaces showed nearly identical recombination dynamics. After thermally depositing high work function MoO3 and reflective Au as the back contact on the Al2O3-passivated absorber, we obtained devices with efficiencies of up to 11.6%. Applying the same strategy of exfoliating working devices and engineering the back contact resulted in efficiencies of up to 12.2% for passivation with a 10 nm layer of Se instead of Al2O3. Lastly, further development of such passivation and back-contact engineering approaches may lead to higher efficiency devices with absorber thicknesses below 1 μm.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5037093},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 3,
volume = 113,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 19 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Thu Jul 19 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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Works referenced in this record:
Employing time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy to analyze carrier dynamics in thin-film Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 absorber layers
journal, June 2014
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journal, April 2016
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Back Contact Engineering for Increased Performance in Kesterite Solar Cells
journal, May 2017
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Works referencing / citing this record:
Effect of solid-H 2 S gas reactions on CZTSSe thin film growth and photovoltaic properties of a 12.62% efficiency device
journal, January 2019
- Son, Dae-Ho; Kim, Seung-Hyun; Kim, Se-Yun
- Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 7, Issue 44
Back and front contacts in kesterite solar cells: state-of-the-art and open questions
journal, October 2019
- Platzer-Björkman, Charlotte; Barreau, Nicolas; Bär, Marcus
- Journal of Physics: Energy, Vol. 1, Issue 4