Understanding quaternary compound Cu₂ZnSnSe₄ synthesis by microscopic scale analyses at an identical location

Abstract

'Understanding quaternary compound Cu2ZnSnSe4 synthesis by microscopic scale analyses at an identical location.', Journal of materials chemistry C., 4 (21). pp. 4626-4629. Further information on publisher's website:Publisher's copyright statement:Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details.

Reaction Pathway for Efficient Cu2ZnSnSe4 Solar Cells from Alloyed CuSn Precursor via a Cu‐Rich Selenization Stage

“…Therefore, heat treatments and soft annealing of precursors are mentioned in literature for their expected beneficial role for improving the elemental distribution in the resulting layers. [8,[11][12][13] One of the stated aims of such procedures is the improved mixing and alloying of the elements, as long as they are in the metallic form (i.e., before selenization), as the elements can be expected to have a significantly higher mobility while still in the metallic state compared with their selenized state. Layers with improved elemental distribution, after soft annealing, as reported in literature, [8,11] may lead to more defined reaction kinetics during the selenization step and hence a better composition control in the resulting absorber with less secondary phases.…”

“…[18][19][20] The assputtered Cu─Sn alloy layer can be expected to reduce the risk of possible island formation due to dewetting effects of elemental Sn [21] and the uncontrolled occurrence of Cu─Sn and Cu─Zn domains. [12] However, the detailed reaction mechanism behind the process was not explored.…”

Discrepancy between integral and local composition in off-stoichiometric Cu2ZnSnSe4 kesterites: A pitfall for classification

“…Strong lateral compositional variations on the micrometer scale were also observed for this sample (see Supplementary Material) and other sequentially produced CZTSe thin films in plan-view geometry. 17 However, our methodology allows the unambiguous identification of binary phases due to the small thickness of the cross section lamella. In the present case, the dimensions of these binary secondary phases range from about 100 nm up to 1 or 2 lm.…”