Novel Evaporation Process for Deposition of Kesterite Thin Films Synthesized by Solvothermal Method

Abstract

Kesterite, a quaternary compound of Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 , is a promising option as a material absorber to reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar cells. e solvothermal method is a way to synthesize nanoparticles of this material. In this work, once synthesized, particles were deposited on a substrate through evaporation, and their morphological, structural, and optical properties were studied. Results show that changes of precursor ratios during solvothermal synthesis result in a modi cation of particle morphology but not on its size. e deposition of already synthesized kesterite through evaporation preserves kesterite structure and permits the formation of a homogenous lm on a substrate. Optical re ectance and transmittance measurements allowed estimating the band-gap energy between 1.41 and 1.46 eV for representative samples, which is near the optimum for the absorber material.