No abstract

No abstract

The use of costly and rare metals such as indium and gallium in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) based solar cells has motivated research into the use of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) as a suitable replacement due to its non-toxicity, abundance of compositional elements and excellent optical properties (1.5 eV direct band gap and absorption coefficient of ~104 cm−1). In this study, we demonstrate a one-step pulsed hybrid electrodeposition method (PHED), which combines electrophoretic and electroplating deposition to deposit uniform CZTS thin-films. Through careful analysis and optimization, we are able to demonstrate CZTS solar cells with the VOC, JSC, FF and η of 350 mV, 3.90 mA/cm2, 0.43 and 0.59%, respectively.

Plasmonic resonance effect triggered by gold nanoparticles (NPs) is utilized to enhance light harvesting in different types of thin-film solar cells. However, there is no report using the plasmonic resonance effect triggered by metal NPs in chalcopyrite absorber-based devices because of the high reactivity between the metal NPs and indium/copper/gallium during the required high-temperature selenization process. In this work, Au NPs encapsulated by a thin protective silicon oxide shell in the chalcopyrite absorber-based solar cells deposited by scalable solution deposition techniques under the 600 C selenization process are demonstrated. The increased scattering and surface plasmonic resonance induced field generated by the nanoparticles can lead to significant enhancement in light absorption and charge carrier generation across a broad spectral range. Enhanced power conversion efficiency in solution-processed rigid CuIn(S,Se) 2 from 1.95 to 2.26% and flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cells from 9.28% to 10.88% is achieved after the addition of plasmonic Au-SiO 2 core-shell NPs in the absorber layer. This work demonstrates a facile method for chalcopyrite solar cell enhancement, which is compatible with low-cost and highthroughput manufacturing process.