Fundamental Physical Characterization of Sb2Se3‑Based Quasi-Homojunction Thin Film Solar Cells

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 12; no. 27; pp. 30572 - 30583
• Main Authors: Ren, Donglou, Chen, Shuo, Cathelinaud, Michel, Liang, Guangxing, Ma, Hongli, Zhang, Xianghua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 08.07.2020
• Subjects: Functional Inorganic Materials and Devices; quasi-homojunction; recombination; solar cells; sputtering; Sb2Se3-based films
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c08180

A new type of solar cell based on Cu-doped (p-type) and I-doped (n-type) Sb2Se3 has been designed and fabricated using magnetron sputtering with two different thicknesses of absorber. The overall objective is for better understanding the charge recombination mechanism, especially at the interface region. The investigation has been specifically performed using IMPS (intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy), IMVS (intensity modulated photovoltage spectroscopy), and diode characterizations. It has been found that an increase of the absorber thickness leads to a shorter carrier lifetime, but longer diffusion length and lower trap density, resulting in significantly better performance. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that trap-assisted recombination does not affect the short-circuit current density (J sc), but significantly decreases the open-circuit voltage (V oc). As a result, an encouraging power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.41%, fill factor (FF) of 41%, J sc of 20 mA/cm2, and V oc of 294 mV are obtained. Most importantly, key parameters for further increasing the PCE have been identified.