Thin film solar cell of SnS absorber with cubic crystalline structure

Abstract

In a solar cell: stainless steel/SnS/CdS/ZnO/ZnO:Al, we report conversion efficiency of 1.28%, open-circuit voltage (V oc ) of 0.470 V, and short-circuit current density (J sc ) of 6.2 mA cm À2 , measured on cells of area 1 cm 2 under standard conditions. The thin film of SnS absorber of 550 nm in thickness used in this cell was deposited from a chemical bath. Average crystalline diameter of the material is 24 nm, and its X-ray diffraction pattern fits a cubic unit cell with cube edge of 1.159 nm. The optical band gap of the material is 1.74 eV and its electrical conductivity is 10À6 Ω À1 cm À1 .The mobility-lifetime product of the film was determined as 2 Â 10 À7 cm 2 V À1 from photoconductivity measurement.To build the solar cell, a CdS thin film of 50 nm in thickness was deposited from a chemical bath on the SnS thin film prepared on the stainless steel substrate. Subsequently, a ZnO film of 180 nm and ZnO:Al film of 450 nm in thickness were deposited on this CdS defining a solar cell area of 1 cm 2 . This solar cell is stable under concentrated sunlight of 2-16 suns, attaining V oc of 0.6 V and J sc of 35 mA cm À2 under 16 suns.

Cubic and orthorhombic SnS thin‐film absorbers for tin sulfide solar cells

“…This observation is a reaffirmation of the first results on the large cubic cell for SnS thin films reported in Ref. for the XRD pattern recorded in the 2 θ interval 10–70°. Extended 2 θ interval in Fig.…”

“…Hence, such cells would not be commercially viable . The best solar cell of this type has so far (in 2015) reached η of only 1.28%, J sc of 6.2 mA cm −2 , and V oc of 0.470 V . For SnS‐ORT absorbers, J sc would approach 40 mA cm −2 for large thickness but the V oc for the best SnS‐ORT solar cell has been 0.390 V or below in 2014 .…”

Cubic‐structured tin selenide thin film as a novel solar cell absorber

“…Solar cells of SnS‐ORT thin films prepared by thermal evaporation or atomic layer deposition have reached solar energy to electric energy conversion efficiency ( η ) of 3.88–4.63% in 2014. In the meantime, an alternate crystalline form (polymorph) of SnS has come up, which as nanocrystals or in thin films , is now assigned a simple cubic crystalline structure (CUB) with a large unit cell. Its lattice constant is a = 11.59 Å in thin films or in nanocrystals .…”

Metastable cubic tin sulfide: A novel phonon-stable chiral semiconductor

“…15 The cubic phase has reported optical bandgaps ranging from 1.6 to 1.8 eV, 11,13,17 and has been used to make a working solar cell. 18 Starting from the reported crystal structure parameters, we performed a local optimization of the structure (lattice vectors and internal positions) within density-functional theory (DFT) following a quasi-Newton minimization procedure. The equilibrium (DFT/PBEsol) lattice constant of 11.506 Å compares well to the value determined from X-ray diffraction at room temperature (11.603 Å).…”