Kesterite CZTS based thin film solar cell: Generation, recombination, and performance analysis

• Published in: The Journal of physics and chemistry of solids Vol. 183; p. 111631
• Main Authors: Chauhan, Pratibha, Agarwal, Surbhi, Srivastava, Vaibhava, Sadanand, Hossain, M. Khalid, Pandey, Rahul, Madan, Jaya, Lohia, Pooja, Dwivedi, D.K., Amami, Mongi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2023
• Subjects: BSF; CZTS; Generation; Recombination; SCAPS-1D; CZTS; Generation; Recombination; BSF; SCAPS-1D
• ISSN: 0022-3697; 1879-2553
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpcs.2023.111631

The thin film Copper Zinc Tin Sulphide (CZTS) solar cells (SC) are third-generation SC that has potential use in solar photovoltaics nowadays. The present work aims to raise the output parameter of CZTS-based SC through the generation and recombination process using Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator in one dimension (SCAPS-1D). The proposed configuration of cell ZnO/ZnS/CZTS/SnS has been evaluated by considering SnS as the back surface field (BSF). It is observed that SnS is a suitable material to be used as a BSF. In the present work, the role of variations of the different parameters such as layer thicknesses, defect densities, recombination and generation of charge carriers, and the back contact work function effect on the PV parameter have been studied. Optimized parameters from the studied cell such as power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.18%, current density (Jsc) as 27.7899 mA/cm2, open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.7875 V, and fill factor (FF) of 83.07% have been recorded. This result will pave the researchers working in this field to fabricate earth-abundant, low-cost, highly efficient, and toxic-free CZTS SCs. •SCAPS-1D simulation software has been used for this study.•The study shows that device performance strongly depends on various parameters.•Using ZnS and SnS materials are used as ETL & HTL respectively.•The optimized PCE is 18.18%.•Some other performances parameter Voc, Jsc and FF have also been optimized along with generation and recombination.