Room temperature deposition of highly crystalline Cu-Zn-S thin films for solar cell applications using SILAR method

Cu-Zn-S having inexpensive, non-toxic, and earth-abundant constituent elements, combined with suitable optical and electrical properties is a promising candidate as an absorber material for thin film solar cell fabrication. We report the deposition of Cu-Zn-S thin films using Successive Ionic Layer...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of alloys and compounds 2017-07, Vol.712, p.649-656
Main Authors: Jose, Edwin, Santhosh Kumar, M.C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorptivity
Adsorption
Band gap
Chemical compounds
Conductivity
Copper
CuZnS
Deposition
Earth abundant
Electrical properties
Electrical resistivity
Infrared spectroscopy
Optical properties
p-type absorber
p-type transparent conducting film
Room temperature
SILAR deposition
Structural stability
Substrates
Thin film solar cells
Thin films
Visible spectrum
Zinc
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Cu-Zn-S having inexpensive, non-toxic, and earth-abundant constituent elements, combined with suitable optical and electrical properties is a promising candidate as an absorber material for thin film solar cell fabrication. We report the deposition of Cu-Zn-S thin films using Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR) method under room temperature and atmospheric conditions. Cu-Zn-S thin films are deposited over glass substrates with different Cu/(Cu+Zn) ratio in the precursor solution to investigate the band gap tunability. The as-deposited Cu-Zn-S films are characterized for determining their structural, compositional, morphological, optical and electrical properties. Also studied the stability of electrical properties for a period of six months after the deposition. All the films exhibited p-type conductivity and a relatively high absorption coefficient value between 104 to 105 cm−1 in the visible and near-IR spectral range. We observed that, under the Zn-rich growth conditions, the films formed are having a double band gap structure with lower band gap values in the range 1.6–1.7 eV, making them a suitable absorber material for solar cell fabrication. Under the Cu-rich growth conditions, band gap values reached 2.4–2.6 eV making them a suitable buffer/window layer in solar cell application. Notably, films with Cu/(Cu+Zn) ratio 0.8 showed an optical transparency of 40–70% in the visible spectrum along with an electrical conductivity of 2900 S cm−1, which is much higher than the other reported p-type transparent conducting materials. •Room temperature and atmospheric deposition of Cu-Zn-S thin films.•Inexpensive, earth-abundant, and non-toxic constituents for low cost solar cells.•Investigation of band gap tunability with varying Cu/(Cu+Zn) ratio.•Bandgap values in the range suitable for absorber layer under Zn rich conditions.•Optical and electrical properties suitable for p-type TCMs under Cu rich conditions.
ISSN:0925-8388
1873-4669
DOI:10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.04.097