Abstract

An overview over the progress in sulfosalts research is given, including basic and application oriented research work. The ternary and multinary compound semiconductor family is defined. The chemical composition possibilities are given as well as an introduction to the structural systematics. The peculiarities of the complex crystal structures are outlined. The main characteristics of thermodynamic properties are given exemplarily by the SnS–Sb2S3 pseudo‐binary phase diagram. A new phase in the Sn–Sb–S system, SnSb4S7, is reported and the new crystal structure is shown. The published methods of synthesis, thin film deposition, and nanoparticle preparation are listed in tables. A detailed listing of different methods, used for sulfosalt thin film deposition is presented. Data of physical properties are collected and presented. A compilation of measured bandgaps is given. The potential of sulfosalts in possible applications and the role in actual applications are widespread. They include photovoltaic (thin film solar cells) and thermoelectric energy conversion (thermoelectric generator, Peltier elements), phase change memory (rewritable compact discs), catalysis, X‐Ray detectors, and cryoelectronics. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

A doubling of the photocurrent due to light trapping is demonstrated by the combination of silver nanoparticles with a highly reflective back scatterer fabricated by Snow Globe Coating on the rear of a 2 μm polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cell. The binder free high refractive index titania particles can overcome light losses due to transmission. Modelling indicates that adding plasmonic nanoparticles to the back scatterer widens the angular distribution of scattered light such that over 80% of long wavelength light is scattered outside the Si/air loss cone and trapped in the cell, compared to 30% for the titania alone.

A novel method, snow globe coating, is found to show significant enhancement of the short circuit current JSC (35%) when applied as a scattering back reflector for polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells. The coating is formed from high refractive index titania particles without containing binder and gives close to 100% reflectance for wavelengths above 400 nm. Snow globe coating is a physicochemical coating method executable in pH neutral media. The mild conditions of this process make this method applicable to many different types of solar cells. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.