Tetrahedrally coordinated disordered Cu₂SnS₃-Cu₂ZnSnS₄-ZnS alloys with tunable optical and electronic properties

Journal Article · Thu Aug 28 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2014.05.024· OSTI ID:1151863

Erslev, Peter T.; Young, Matthew R.; Li, Jian V.; Siah, Sin Cheng; Chakraborty, Rupak; Du, Hui; Lad, Robert J.; Buonassisi, Tonio; Teeter, Glenn ^[1]

---

1. NREL

A key requirement for large-scale deployment of photovoltaic technologies is the development of highly functional materials with controllable opto-electronic properties. In this work, we report on the room-temperature synthesis of disordered alloys of the Earth-abundant, tetrahedrally coordinated semiconductors Cu₂SnS₃, Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS), and ZnS as (Cu₂SnS₃)_1-x(ZnS)_x. The resulting disordered semiconductors are found to have continuously and independently tunable optical and electronic properties. Quasi-isovalent alloying on the cation sublattice allows the optical band gap to be varied continuously from 1.1 eV to 2.8 eV. Aliovalent alloying leads to independent control of carrier concentration over at least three orders of magnitude. A conceptual framework describing these disordered materials is presented, in which the structural disorder, constrained by local tetrahedral coordination of both anions and cations, leads to the observed high degree of tunability of the opto-electronic properties. These materials are not only independently interesting, but the developed framework also applies to the opto-electronic properties of kesterite CZTS materials as well as provides a basis for the development of new semiconductors.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE - BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES
• OSTI ID: 1151863
• Journal Information: Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C, Vol. 129, Issue 10, 2014
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH