Thin film solar cells based on the ternary compound Cu2SnS3

Abstract

Alongside with Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 and SnS, the p-type semiconductor Cu 2 SnS 3 also consists of only Earth abundant and low-cost elements and shows comparable opto-electronic properties, with respect to Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 and SnS, making it a promising candidate for photovoltaic applications of the future. In this work, the ternary compound has been produced via the annealing of an electrodeposited precursor in a sulfur and tin sulfide environment. The obtained absorber layer has been structurally investigated by X-ray diffraction and results indicate the crystal structure to be monoclinic. Its optical properties have been measured via photoluminescence, where an asymmetric peak at 0.95 eV has been found. The evaluation of the photoluminescence spectrum indicates a band gap of 0.93 eV which agrees well with the results from the external quantum efficiency. Furthermore, this semiconductor layer has been processed into a photovoltaic device with a power conversion efficiency of 0.54 %, a short circuit current of 17.1 mA/cm 2 , a open circuit voltage of 104 mV hampered by a small shunt resistance, a fill factor of 30.4 %, and a maximal external quantum efficiency of just less than 60 %. In addition, the potential of this Cu 2 SnS 3 absorber layer for photovoltaic applications is discussed.

Effects of Disorder on Carrier Transport inCu2SnS3

“…First principles calculations showed a wide range of phase stability, high optical absorption coefficient, and lack of Fermi level pinning in this material [6]. Experimental reports of the band gap of Cu 2 SnS 3 range from 0.9-1.35 eV, well suited for a single-junction PV device [7,8]. Furthermore, alloying with Si or Ge on the Sn site can serve to increase the band gap.…”

Influence of Ge composition in the Cu2Sn1−Ge S3 thin-film photovoltaic absorber prepared by sulfurization of laminated metallic precursor

“…In addition to this properties, this material has an advantage on the environmental pollution issue since it is chemically stable and has no highly toxic elements composed in it. However, the researches concerning with this CTGS alloy in the thin-film photovoltaic applications are still in the early initial phase and the study on CTGS alloy itself with various Ge contents is still premature compared to the study of individual Cu 2 SnS 3 (CTS) or Cu 2 GeS 3 (CGS) ternary compounds [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32]. Up to now, only a few reports about the photovoltaic devices based on the CTGS with various Ge contents have been made [12,33,34].…”

Temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy of Cu2Sn1− x Ge x S3 thin films

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][12][13][14][15][16][17] Besides, formation of different crystal phases as well as unintended secondary phases is one of the major problems for this material system due to its multinary elemental composition. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Hence, it is important to explore the material properties relating to its impurity phases as well as fabrication techniques of CTGS multinary compound by various theoretical and experimental approaches in order to improve its characteristics. Temperature-dependent Raman analysis has advantages over the conventional room temperature measurement in understanding the different behavior of secondary phases mixed unintentionally in the CTGS.…”