Vapor Transport Deposition of Highly Efficient Sb₂(S,Se)₃ Solar Cells via Controllable Orientation Growth

Abstract

The vapor transport deposition of quasi‐one‐dimensional antimony selenosulfide (Sb2(S,Se)3) has recently attracted increasing research interest for the inexpensive, high‐throughput production of thin film photovoltaic devices. Further improvements in Sb2(S,Se)3 solar cell performance urgently require the identification of processing strategies to control the orientation, however the growth mechanism of high quality absorbers is still not completely clear. Herein, a facile and general vapor transport deposition approach to precisely control the growth of large‐grained dense Sb2(S,Se)3 films with good crystallization and preferred orientation via the source vapor speed is utilized. It is found that defect activation energy rather than the defect concentration plays a decisive role in the Sb2(S,Se)3 photovoltaic performance. Admittance spectroscopy analysis is used to obtain efficient Sb2(S,Se)3 solar cells. By employing dual‐source coordinations to optimize the absorber layer a power conversion efficiency of 8.17% is obtained which is the highest efficiency for Sb2(S,Se)3 solar cells fabricated by vapor transport technology. This study suggests that there are other opportunities for gaining deeper a understanding of the defect physics and carrier recombination mechanisms in other highly oriented low‐dimensional materials to achieve improved device performance.

High‐Efficiency Sb2(S,Se)3 Solar Cells with New Hole Transport Layer‐Free Back Architecture via 2D Titanium‐Carbide Mxene

“…We can find that the MXene‐derived device in our work is the first time to join the club of over 8% efficiency using the noble metal and/or organic‐free BCMs for Sb 2 (S x Se 1− x ) 3 solar cells. [ 10–13,15,56–64 ] This back contact engineering strategy, via the novel, stable, and eco‐friendly BCMs of MXene electrode, enables to achieve a low‐cost and full‐inorganic Sb 2 (S,Se) 3 solar cell with high efficiency.…”

“…By enjoying the preferred band alignment induced by high WF of Au, Chu and co‐workers employed a vapor transport deposition way to refresh the recorded PCE of HTL‐free Sb 2 (S,Se) 3 solar cell to 8.17%. [ 15 ] It is justifiable to use Au electrodes on small‐size samples, but it will contribute to high overall fabrication costs in solar cell technologies that rely on large‐area devices. In addition, C has a WF close to that of gold, which is also regarded as a potential low‐cost electrode material to replace Au and delivers a moderate PCE of ≈5% in Sb 2 (S,Se) 3 solar cells.…”

9.6%-Efficient all-inorganic Sb2(S,Se)3 solar cells with a MnS hole-transporting layer

“…1,2 In addition, its low melting point and high vapour pressure enable low temperature and up-scalable rapid thermal evaporation (RTE) and vapour-transport deposition (VTD) processing which is compatible with Si bottom cell manufacturing. [3][4][5] All these features make Sb 2 (S,Se) 3 a promising candidate in not only single-junction solar cells but also silicon-based tandem solar cells. 6,7 Due to the highly anisotropic quasi 1D structure and the associated low effective carrier mobility of Sb 2 (S,Se) 3 , an n-i-p device structure with a fully depleted absorber and enhanced carrier collection via an extended built-in electric eld is essential for achieving high efficiencies.…”

Efficient All‐Inorganic Sb2S3 Solar Cells with Matched Energy Levels Using Sb2Se3 as Hole Transport Layers

“…[28] The combinations of Sb 2 S 3 and Sb 2 Se 3 as double absorbers are an available way to control the bandgap to improve J SC and PCE. [29,30] Considering that Sb 2 Se 3 can work as a cooperative absorber or HTL, the functions are important for Sb 2 S 3 solar cells, which have to be further studied.…”