Chemically deposited nanocrystalline lead sulfide thin films with tunable properties for use in photovoltaics

Slonopas, Andre; Alijabbari, Naser; Saltonstall, Christopher B.; Globus, Tatiana; Norris, Pamela M.

doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2014.11.021

Cited by 55 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…These results reveal a thin (~30 nm) passivation CdO layer forming on top of the films [31]. Similar results have been widely reported in various materials deposited by CBD method [19]. Such stoichiometric structures are explained by the dangling bonds on the surface of the materials.…”

Section: Cbd Experimental Datasupporting

confidence: 74%

“…In more recent years, the process has been extended to deposit electron and hole transport layers (ETL and HTL, respectively), transparent conducting oxides (TCO), nanotubes, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) devices, and numerous other applications [13][14][15][16][17]. Further, the CBD method is inexpensive, easy to implement, convenient for large area depositions, and associated with highly favorable optoelectronic and structural properties [18,19]. The power and the usefulness of the method cannot be overstated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Efficient Optimization of the Optoelectronic Performance in Chemically Deposited Thin Films

Slonopas¹,

Dhar²,

Ryan³

et al. 2017

Thin Film Processes - Artifacts on Surface Phenomena and Technological Facets

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Chemical deposition methodology is a well-understood and highly documented category of deposition techniques. In recent years, chemical bath deposition (CBD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) have garnered considerable attention as an effective alternative to other deposition methods. The applicability of CVD and CBD for industrial-sized operations is perhaps the most attractive aspect, in that thin-film deposition costs inversely scale with the processing batch size without loss of desirable optoelectronic properties in the materials. A downside of the method is that the optoelectronic characteristics of these films are highly susceptible to spurious deposition growth mechanisms. For example, increasing the temperature of the chemical deposition bath can shift the deposition mechanisms from ion-by-ion (two dimensional) precipitation to bulk solution cluster-by-cluster (three dimensional) formation which then deposit. This drastically changes the structural, optical, and electrical characteristics of CBD-deposited thin films.A similar phenomenon is observed in CVD deposited materials. Thus, it is of great interest to study the coupling between the deposition parameters and subsequent effects on film performance. Such studies have been conducted to elucidate the correlation between growth mechanisms and film performance. Here, we present a review of the current literature demonstrating that simple changes can be made in processing conditions to optimize the characteristics of these films for optoelectronic applications.

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Section: Cbd Experimental Datasupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient Optimization of the Optoelectronic Performance in Chemically Deposited Thin Films

Slonopas¹,

Dhar²,

Ryan³

et al. 2017

Thin Film Processes - Artifacts on Surface Phenomena and Technological Facets

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Thermal evaporation technique [1][2][3][4] and chemical bath deposition [1,[5][6][7] are the most popular method which permit to obtain polycrystalline materials providing a different structure and physical properties. The chemical bath deposition method is low-cost processes and the films are of comparable quality to those obtained by more complicated and expensive physical deposition processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal Activation of Iodine-Containing PbSe thin Films

2016

European Reviews of Chemical Research

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Influence of iodine addition on elemental composition, structure and surface morphology on lead selenide thin films prepared by chemical bath deposition method was studied by methods of X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy with elemental energy-dispersive analysis. Content of iodine in thin films raised to 4.25 at.% with increasing concentration of ammonium iodide in bath solution. Influence of anneal on structure and crystallite size of lead selenide thin films was found.Keywords: chemical bath deposition, thin films, lead selenide, iodine doping, annealing, thermal activation, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, doping, semiconductors Introduction Thin films based on lead chalcogenide are one of the most promising semiconductor material. Lead chalcogenides have high photovoltaic properties in spectral range from 2.0 to 5.0 micrometer, due to they have been found wide applications in photodetector [1].Both physical and chemical methods of deposition have been used for prepare lead chalcogenide. Thermal evaporation technique [1][2][3][4] and chemical bath deposition [1,[5][6][7] are the most popular method which permit to obtain polycrystalline materials providing a different structure and physical properties. The chemical bath deposition method is low-cost processes and the films are of comparable quality to those obtained by more complicated and expensive physical deposition processes. It can be used for preparation of high-quality lead chalcogenide films with control of the deposition parameters such as stirring period, reaction time, bath temperature, solution pH, and added impurities.As-deposited thin films also don't have photosensitivity because they are subject to hightemperature annealing in an oxygen atmosphere. Changing the conditions of thermal activation, it can also affect the photovoltaic properties of materials [8]. Alloy addition may occur both during the synthesis of the films and during annealing. Iodine-containing additions use in the chemical deposition of thin films because the iodine provides with high sensitive to IR radiation [2,3,5,6].

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“…This chapter is dedicated to the growth and development of PbS thin films. Some of the presented material has been copied from the PbS published work by Slonopas et al in Electrochimica Acta [115].…”

Section: Chapter 4 Lead (Ii) Sulfidementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Applications for CdS materials are extremely broad. Such materials have been used, integrated, or proposed for use in: photodetector applications [111], solar absorber coatings [112], solar control coatings [113], buffer layers in thin film solar cells [114], mid-IR photovoltaics [115], and numerous other applications [116].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mid-IR Range Photosensitive Device Based on Chemically Deposited Nanocrystalline Chalcogenide Thin Films with Tunable Opto-electrical properties

Slonopas

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Past several decades have driven modernization of technology and machinery. This modernization has pushed the limits of our technology and increased our dependence on the energy. Additional side-effect of this rapid growth has been an exponential increase in the generated heat of the modern machinery.In most cases this waste heat is simply released into the environment. Numerous research groups have pursued an idea of capturing and converting the waste heat. Thermoelectric, pyroelectrics, organic Rankine cycle (ORC), and several other methods have been proposed to capture and convert the waste heat into electricity. Presently, all methods, however, have low conversion efficiency and are not economically feasible.In this work we focused on a practical approach to convert mid-IR electromagnetic waves to electricity. It is based on inexpensive thin film technology utilizing a junction between a narrow bandgap lead salt and wide bandgap chalcogenide film.Lead sulfide (PbS) was chosen as the narrow band semiconductors for the IR energy conversion.Lead salt photodetectors uniquely demonstrate high room temperature sensitivity to black-body sources in low temperatures and high internal quantum efficiency (QE). Further, the peculiar band structure of the lead salt allows for small Auger recombination and minimized losses.Due to its favorable opto-electrical properties and band compatibility with PbS, cadmium sulfide (CdS) was chosen as the wide bandgap semiconductor for this work.This work has shown that high quality nanocrystalline thin films of lead sulfide (PbS) and cadmium sulfide (CdS) can be grown cost efficiently using chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. Chemical bath seeding procedure was also developed in order to achieve reproducibility in the transport phenomena of the advanced materials. Seeding also allows these films to be deposited on any surface, including smooth flexible materials. Seeded kernels have shown to become the crystallization centers for both nanocrystalline films.Opto-electrical properties of the films were tuned in such a way to make the materials useful in a broad-band of the IR spectrum. We have shown that altering the parameters of the chemical bath deposition alters the grains hence changing the transport characteristics of the materials. We have shown that parameters of the chemical bath deposition can be optimized to produce highly sensitive thin films tuned to a specific range of the electromagnetic spectra.Novel transparent conducting oxide, Iridium (Ir) doped Titanium Oxide (TiO2) was developed in this work for the use in the optoelectronic device. Ir has been shown to be one of the most efficient dopants in thin films. Ir doped TiO2 has shown to have transport characteristics similar ii to those of the commonly used TCOs, with much higher optical transmittance in the infra-red range.Lastly devices were manufactured from the developed materials. TiO2/CdS/PbS/Au heterojunctions were manufactured and showed photoresponsivity. Device efficiencies were shown to depend on the...

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Chemically deposited nanocrystalline lead sulfide thin films with tunable properties for use in photovoltaics

Cited by 55 publications

References 19 publications

Efficient Optimization of the Optoelectronic Performance in Chemically Deposited Thin Films

Efficient Optimization of the Optoelectronic Performance in Chemically Deposited Thin Films

Thermal Activation of Iodine-Containing PbSe thin Films

Mid-IR Range Photosensitive Device Based on Chemically Deposited Nanocrystalline Chalcogenide Thin Films with Tunable Opto-electrical properties

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