A detailed study explaining the beneficial effects of low temperature post deposition annealing combined with selective surface etchings for Cu 2 ZnSnSe 4 (CZTSe) based solar cells is presented. After performing a selective oxidizing surface etching to remove ZnSe secondary phases typically formed during the synthesis processes an additional 200ºC annealing step is necessary to increase device performance from below 3% power conversion efficiency up to 8.3% for the best case. This significant increase in efficiency can be explained by changes in the surface chemistry which results in strong improvement of the CdS/CZTSe heterojunction commonly used in this kind of absorber/buffer/window heterojunction solar cells. XPS measurements reveal that the 200ºC annealing promotes a Cu depletion and Zn enrichment of the etched CZTSe absorber surface relative to the CZTSe bulk. Raman measurements confirm a change in Cu/Zn ordering and increase in defect density. Furthermore, TEM microstructural investigations indicate a change of grain boundaries composition by a reduction of their Cu content after the 200ºC annealing treatment. Additionally, insights in the CdS/CZTSe interface are gained showing a significant amount of Cu in the CdS buffer layer which further helps the formation of a Cu-depleted surface and seems to play an important role in the formation of the pn-heterojunction.

Cu2SnZn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) solar cells based on earth abundant and nontoxic elements currently achieve efficiencies exceeding 12%. It has been reported that, to obtain high efficiency devices, a post thermal treatment of absorbers or devices at temperatures ranging between 150 and 400 °C (post low temperature treatment, PLTT) is advisable. Recent findings point toward a beneficial passivation of grain boundaries with SnOx or Cu-depleted surface and grain boundaries during the PLTT process, but no investigation regarding alkali doping is available, even though alkali dynamics, especially Na, are systematically reported to be crucial within the field. In this work, CZTSSe absorbers were subjected to the PLTT process under different temperatures, and solar cells were completed. We found surprisingly behavior in which efficiency decreased to nearly 0% at 200 °C during the PLTT process, being recovered or even improved at temperatures above 300 °C. This unusual behavior correlates well with the Na dynamics in the devices, especially with the in-depth distribution of Na in the active CZTSSe/CdS interface region, indicating the key importance of Na spatial distribution on device properties. We present an innovative model for Na dynamics supported by theoretical calculations and additional specially designed experiments to explain this behavior. After optimization of the PLTT process, a Se-rich CZTSSe solar cell with 8.3% efficiency was achieved.

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Thin film solar cells based on the kesterite material with the general composition Cu 2 ZnSn(Se,S) 4 can be a substitute for the more common chalcopyrites (Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S) 2 ) with a similar band gap range. When replacing the anion sulfide with selenide, the optical band gap of kesterite changes from 1.5 to 1 eV. Here we report on a study of the valence band maximum and conduction band minimum energies of kesterites with either S or Se as the anion. Knowing these positions is crucial for the design of solar cells in order to match the bands of the absorber material with those of the subsequent functional layers like buffer or window layer. Their relative positions were studied using photoelectron spectroscopy of the valence band edge and x-ray absorption spectroscopy of the cations Cu, Zn, and Sn, respectively. The experimental results are interpreted and confirmed in terms of calculations based on density-functional theory and the GW approach of the many-body theory.

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