Antimony selenide is an emerging promising thin film photovoltaic material thanks to its binary composition, suitable bandgap, high absorption coefficient, inert grain boundaries and earth-abundant constituents. However, current devices produced from rapid thermal evaporation strategy suffer from low-quality film and unsatisfactory performance. Herein, we develop a vapor transport deposition technique to fabricate antimony selenide films, a technique that enables continuous and low-cost manufacturing of cadmium telluride solar cells. We improve the crystallinity of antimony selenide films and then successfully produce superstrate cadmium sulfide/antimony selenide solar cells with a certified power conversion efficiency of 7.6%, a net 2% improvement over previous 5.6% record of the same device configuration. We analyze the deep defects in antimony selenide solar cells, and find that the density of the dominant deep defects is reduced by one order of magnitude using vapor transport deposition process.

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Photodetectors convert light signals into current or voltage outputs and are widely used for imaging, sensing, and spectroscopy. Perovskite-based photodetectors have shown high sensitivity and fast response due to the unprecedented low recombination loss in this solution processed semiconductor. Among various types of CHNHPbI morphology (film, single crystal, nanowire), single-crystalline CHNHPbI nanowires are particularly interesting for photodetection because of their reduced grain boundary, morphological anisotropy, and excellent mechanical flexibility. The concomitant disadvantage associated with the CHNHPbI nanowire photodetectors is their large surface area, which catalyzes carrier recombination and material decomposition, thus significantly degrading device performance and stability. Here we solved this key problem by introducing oleic acid soaking to passivate surface defects of CHNHPbI nanowires, which leads to a device with much improved stability and unprecedented sensitivity (measured detectivity of 2 × 10 Jones). By taking advantage of their one-dimensional geometry, we also showcased, for the first time, the linear dichroic photodetection of our CHNHPbI nanowire photodetector.