Thin-film Sb2Se3 photovoltaics with oriented one-dimensional ribbons and benign grain boundaries

Zhou, Ying; Wang, Liang; Chen, Shiyou; Qin, Sikai; Liu, Xinsheng; Chen, Jie; Xue, Desheng; Luo, Miao; Cao, Yanguang; Cheng, Yi‐Bing; Sargent, Edward H.; Tang, Jiang

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2015.78

Cited by 865 publications

(798 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Device shunting due to pinhole formation has been observed in other polycrystalline thin-film materials as well. Novel polycrystalline absorber materials such as antimony selenide (Sb 2 Se 3 ) 17 and copper antimony sulfide (CuSbS 2 ) 18 have been successfully applied in photovoltaic devices. However, low shunt resistances have been reported which may limit the device performance todate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Two-Step Absorber Deposition Approach To Overcome Shunt Losses in Thin-Film Solar Cells: Using Tin Sulfide as a Proof-of-Concept Material System

Steinmann

Chakraborty

Rekemeyer

et al. 2016

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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As novel absorber materials are developed and screened for their photovoltaic (PV) properties, the challenge remains to reproducibly test promising candidates for high-performing PV devices. Many early-stage devices are prone to device shunting due to pinholes in the absorber layer, producing "false-negative" results. Here, we demonstrate a device engineering solution toward a robust device architecture, using a two-step absorber deposition approach. We use tin sulfide (SnS) as a test absorber material. The SnS bulk is processed at high temperature (400°C) to stimulate grain growth, followed by a much thinner, low-temperature (200°C ) absorber deposition. At a lower process temperature, the thin absorber overlayer contains significantly smaller, densely packed grains, which are likely to provide a continuous coating and fill pinholes in the underlying absorber bulk. We compare this two-step approach to the more standard approach of using a semi-insulating buffer layer directly on top of the annealed absorber bulk, and we demonstrate a more than 3.5× superior shunt resistance R sh with smaller standard error σ Rsh . Electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) measurements indicate a lower density of pinholes in the SnS absorber bulk when using the two-step absorber deposition approach. We correlate those findings to improvements in the device performance and device performance reproducibility.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Two-Step Absorber Deposition Approach To Overcome Shunt Losses in Thin-Film Solar Cells: Using Tin Sulfide as a Proof-of-Concept Material System

Steinmann

Chakraborty

Rekemeyer

et al. 2016

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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“…• C under 30 min annealing condition [12,15,16]. It is also reported that the device performance is better for the film deposited at substrate temperature of 300…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…• C [12]. From this literature review, it is clear that the thermal stability of amorphous Sb 2 Se 3 film is at 197…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…• C [12]. The absorption coefficient is very high (α) > 10 5 cm −1 in the short wavelength range (close to the absorption onset) to be considered an alternative absorber instead of conventional cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells [1,2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Various methods have been used to deposit Sb 2 Se 3 thin film such as thermal evaporation [12,15,41], spin coating [42], electrodeposition [43], solvothermal [44] and hydrothermal method [39] etc. To the best of our knowledge, no comparative report is available in literature regarding the theoretical and experimental study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A comparative study on the electronic and optical properties of Sb-=SUB=-2-=/SUB=-Se-=SUB=-3-=/SUB=- thin film

Kamruzzaman¹,

Chao-Ping²,

Islam³

et al. 2017

Физика И Техника Полупроводников

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The thin film of Sb 2 Se 3 was deposited by thermal evaporation method and the film was annealed in N 2 flow in a three zone furnace at a temperature of 290• C for 30 min. The structural properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. It is seen that the as-deposited film is amorphous and the annealed film is polycrystalline in nature. The surface of Sb 2 Se 3 film is oxidized with a thickness of 1.15 nm investigated by X-ray photolecetron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and UV-vis spectroscopy measurements were carried out to study the optical properties of Sb 2 Se 3 film. In addition, the first principles calculations were applied to study the electronic and optical properties of Sb 2 Se 3 . From the theoretical calculation it is seen that Sb 2 Se 3 is intrinsically an indirect band gap semiconductor. Importantly, the experimental band gap is in good agreement with the theoretical band gap. Furthermore, the experimental values of n, k, ε 1 , and ε 2 are much closer to the theoretical results. However, the obtained large dielectric constants and refractive index values suggest that exciton binding energy in Sb 2 Se 3 should be relatively small and an antireflective coating is recommended to enhance the light absorption of Sb 2 Se 3 for thin film solar cells application.

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Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Su,

Wang

2024

Water Photo‐ and Electro‐Catalysis

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Thin-film Sb2Se3 photovoltaics with oriented one-dimensional ribbons and benign grain boundaries

Cited by 865 publications

References 31 publications

A Two-Step Absorber Deposition Approach To Overcome Shunt Losses in Thin-Film Solar Cells: Using Tin Sulfide as a Proof-of-Concept Material System

A Two-Step Absorber Deposition Approach To Overcome Shunt Losses in Thin-Film Solar Cells: Using Tin Sulfide as a Proof-of-Concept Material System

A comparative study on the electronic and optical properties of Sb-=SUB=-2-=/SUB=-Se-=SUB=-3-=/SUB=- thin film

Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

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