Cu2Sn1-xGexS3 thin film solar cells fabricated from sputtered precursors: Effects of soft-annealing process. (October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: He, Mingrui; Kim, Jihun; Suryawanshi, M.P.; Ghorpade, U.V.; Gang, Myengil; Kim, Jin Hyeok
• Is Part Of: Materials science in semiconductor processing. Volume 85(2018)
• Page Start: 160
• Page End: 167
• Publication Date: 2018-10
• Subjects: Cu2Sn1-xGexS3 (CTGS) -- Thin film solar cells -- Soft-annealing -- Sputtering; Semiconductors -- Periodicals; Integrated circuits -- Materials -- Periodicals; Semiconducteurs -- Périodiques; Circuits intégrés -- Matériaux -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 621.38152
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mssp.2018.05.018
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-8001

Abstract

Abstract: Ge-doped Cu2 SnS3 (CTGS) thin films are promising photovoltaic materials for developing low-cost second-generation solar cells. The present work reported a soft-annealing process (annealing the as-deposited precursor without chalcogenide source) for fabricating CTGS solar cells, which is an efficient method to enhance the quality of CTGS thin films and show significant reforming on both as-deposited precursor and sulfurized film. The enlarged grain size and compact microstructure provide obvious evidence of improved efficiency. Further, the reduced defect density is attributed to using a 200 °C soft-annealed precursor. A clear increase in each performance parameter such as open-circuit voltage ( V oc ), short-circuit current density ( J sc ) and fill factor ( FF ) is observed as the soft-annealing temperature increased from 0 °C to 200 °C, whereas a limited enhancement was found at 300 °C. The CTGS solar cell prepared using the soft-annealing process showed an efficiency of 2.66%. In comparison, an efficiency of 1.93% has been achieved in cells fabricated without this process. The improved device performance indicates that further improvement in the CTGS solar cells could be achieved by adopting the soft-annealing precursor in an environmentally friendly manner.