Comparative studies of CdS thin films by chemical bath deposition techniques as a buffer layer for solar cell applications

Ashok, A.; Regmi, G.; Romero-Núñez, Araceli; Solís-López, Myriam; Velumani, S.; Castaneda, Homero

doi:10.1007/s10854-020-03024-3

Cited by 94 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Three diffraction peaks at 2θ value of 13.20°, 15° and 25° corresponding to (002), (002) The influence of thickness of CdS films on the crystallite size (D), dislocation density (δ), lattice strain (ε) and number of crystallites per unit area (N) were also studied and have been shown in Table 1. The crystallite size (D) in the CdS film has been estimated utilizing the Scherrer equation [33,34].…”

Section: Xrd Analysis Of Thickness-dependent Crystalline Properties Omentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The influence of film thickness on n and k needs to be understood in details as these parameters are strongly associated with the electronic polarization of particles for the optical materials [64]. The reflectance R (= 1 − absorbance − transmittance) [65] of a film having a complex refractive index of n*(= n + ik) is given by [66] The absorption coefficient α was calculated using Beer Lambert's formula [67] and the extinction coefficient of the CdS film from the following equation [34].…”

Section: Refractive Index and Extinction Coefficient Of Cds Thin Filmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Structural, surface morphological and optical properties and their correlation with the thickness of spin coated superior quality CdS thin film synthesized using a novel chemical route

2020

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Cadmium sulfide (CdS) is considered as a superior buffer/window layer in thin-film solar cells apart from its various applications. The thickness of the buffer/window layer that defines the interface between the absorber layer is very important and needs to be thoroughly investigated for optimized device performance, particularly when a novel synthesis route and deposition technique is used. This manuscript presents the investigation on the various structural, morphological, and optical parameters and their correlation with the thickness of CdS thin film synthesized using a novel thiol-amine cosolvent with the help of Triton-X 100 surfactant. Spin coating technique is used to deposit CdS thin-films having thicknesses ranging from 100 to 300 nm on a glass substrate. X-ray diffraction (XRD) exposed the polycrystalline nature of the CdS films. All the diffraction peak intensities were found to increase with the thickness. Structural parameters like dislocation density, lattice strain, and crystallites per unit area calculated from the XRD data were found superior to those parameters for CdS films synthesized through various chemical routes, and the parameters indicated a positive correlation of the degree of crystallinity on the thickness. Similarly,surface morphology and optical properties of CdS films that were investigated by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and UV-VIS spectrophotometer, were also dependent on film thickness. These results show that CdS thin film with superior crystallinity can be synthesized using thiol-amine cosolvent along with the Triton-X 100 surfactant and deposited by low-cost spin-coating on glass substrate. Moreover, the thickness variation appeared to be a single tool for obtaining application-specific various properties of CdS thin-film.

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Section: Xrd Analysis Of Thickness-dependent Crystalline Properties Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Refractive Index and Extinction Coefficient Of Cds Thin Filmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural, surface morphological and optical properties and their correlation with the thickness of spin coated superior quality CdS thin film synthesized using a novel chemical route

2020

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“…Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the global demand for renewable and green energy sources due to the exhaustion and environmental issues associated with conventional energy sources, such as fossil fuels and nuclear energy ( Rego de Vasconcelos and Lavoie, 2019 ; Ashok et al, 2020 ; Lin et al, 2020 ; Subhan et al, 2020 ; Tiwari et al, 2020 ). In this regard, solar energy, a low-cost, renewable, naturally abundant and clean energy source, has attracted enormous research effort as a promising alternative to traditional energy sources ( Subramanyam et al, 2019 ; Zhong et al, 2020 ; Rabaia et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Applications of Carbon Nanotubes in Organic Solar Cells

et al. 2022

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In recent years, carbon-based materials, particularly carbon nanotubes (CNTs), have gained intensive research attention in the fabrication of organic solar cells (OSCs) due to their outstanding physicochemical properties, low-cost, environmental friendliness and the natural abundance of carbon. In this regard, the low sheet resistance and high optical transmittance of CNTs enables their application as alternative anodes to the widely used indium tin oxide (ITO), which is toxic, expensive and scarce. Also, the synergy between the large specific surface area and high electrical conductivity of CNTs provides both large donor-acceptor interfaces and conductive interpenetrating networks for exciton dissociation and charge carrier transport. Furthermore, the facile tunability of the energy levels of CNTs provides proper energy level alignment between the active layer and electrodes for effective extraction and transportation of charge carriers. In addition, the hydrophobic nature and high thermal conductivity of CNTs enables them to form protective layers that improve the moisture and thermal stability of OSCs, thereby prolonging the devices’ lifetime. Recently, the introduction of CNTs into OSCs produced a substantial increase in efficiency from ∼0.68 to above 14.00%. Thus, further optimization of the optoelectronic properties of CNTs can conceivably help OSCs to compete with silicon solar cells that have been commercialized. Therefore, this study presents the recent breakthroughs in efficiency and stability of OSCs, achieved mainly over 2018–2021 by incorporating CNTs into electrodes, active layers and charge transport layers. The challenges, advantages and recommendations for the fabrication of low-cost, highly efficient and sustainable next-generation OSCs are also discussed, to open up avenues for commercialization.

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“…For these reasons, extensive research is being done on the alternative buffer layer, such as Zinc sulfides, oxides, and selenides [23][24][25][26]. Like CdS, zinc selenide (ZnSe) is an n-type semiconductor but with a wide bandgap and the most promising material to replace CdS [27][28][29][30]. The bandgap of ZnSe is E g ~2.9 𝑒𝑉 which is greater than the CdS E g ~2.4 𝑒𝑉, that means more light is passed to the CIGS absorber layer and the larger number of photocarriers will be generated increasing efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Investigation of Cu<sub>2</sub>O as Hole Transport Layer for High-Efficiency CIGS Solar Cell

Yousuf¹,

Saeed²,

Tauqeer³

2021

Preprint

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Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) is an inexpensive material that has the potential to dominate the next-generation photovoltaic (PV) industry. Here we detail computational investigation of CIGS solar cell with encouragement of adopting cuprous dioxide (Cu2O) as a Hole Transport Layer (HTL) for efficient fabricated CIGS solar cells. Although Cu2O as a HTL has been studied earlier for perovskite and other organic/inorganic solar cell yet no study has been detailed on potential application of Cu2O for CIGS solar cells. With the proposed architecture, recombination losses are fairly reduced at the back contact and contribute to enhanced photo-current generation. With the introduction of Cu2O, the overall cell efficiency is increased to 26.63%. The wide-band of Cu2O pulls holes from the CIGS absorber which allows smoother extraction of holes with experiencing lesser resistance. Further, it was also inferred that, HTL also improves the quantum efficiency (QE) for photons with large wavelengths thus increases the cell operating spectrum.

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Comparative studies of CdS thin films by chemical bath deposition techniques as a buffer layer for solar cell applications

Cited by 94 publications

References 86 publications

Structural, surface morphological and optical properties and their correlation with the thickness of spin coated superior quality CdS thin film synthesized using a novel chemical route

Structural, surface morphological and optical properties and their correlation with the thickness of spin coated superior quality CdS thin film synthesized using a novel chemical route

Recent Applications of Carbon Nanotubes in Organic Solar Cells

Numerical Investigation of Cu<sub>2</sub>O as Hole Transport Layer for High-Efficiency CIGS Solar Cell

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