ZnS Ultrathin Interfacial Layers for Optimizing Carrier Management in Sb2S3-based Photovoltaics

Büttner P, Scheler F, Pointer C, Döhler D, Yokosawa T, Spiecker E, P. Boix P, Young ER, Minguez Bacho I, Bachmann J (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces American Chemical Society

Book Volume: 13

Pages Range: 11861–11868

Journal Issue: 10

URI: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.0c21365

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c21365

Open Access Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.0c21365

Abstract

Antimony chalcogenides represent a family of materials of low toxicity and relative abundance, with a high potential for future sustainable solar energy conversion technology. However, solar cells based on antimony chalcogenides present open-circuit voltage losses that limit their efficiencies. These losses are attributed to several recombination mechanisms, with interfacial recombination being considered as one of the dominant processes. In this work, we exploit atomic layer deposition (ALD) to grow a series of ultrathin ZnS interfacial layers at the TiO2/Sb2S3 interface to mitigate interfacial recombination and to increase the carrier lifetime. ALD allows for very accurate control over the ZnS interlayer thickness on the ångström scale (0–1.5 nm) and to deposit highly pure Sb2S3. Our systematic study of the photovoltaic and optoelectronic properties of these devices by impedance spectroscopy and transient absorption concludes that the optimum ZnS interlayer thickness of 1.0 nm achieves the best balance between the beneficial effect of an increased recombination resistance at the interface and the deleterious barrier behavior of the wide-bandgap semiconductor ZnS. This optimization allows us to reach an overall power conversion efficiency of 5.09% in planar configuration.

Authors with CRIS profile

Pascal Büttner Lehrstuhl für Chemistry of thin film materials Florian Scheler Lehrstuhl für Chemistry of thin film materials Dirk Döhler Lehrstuhl für Chemistry of thin film materials Tadahiro Yokosawa Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung) Erdmann Spiecker Ignacio Minguez Bacho Lehrstuhl für Chemistry of thin film materials Julien Bachmann Lehrstuhl für Chemistry of thin film materials

Additional Organisation(s)

Interdisziplinäres Zentrum, Center for Nanoanalysis and Electron Microscopy (CENEM) Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung)

Related research project(s)

Center for Nanoanalysis and Electron Microscopy (CENEM) Jan. 1, 2010 - March 3, 2038

Involved external institutions

University of València / Universitat de València ES Spain (ES) Lehigh University US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Büttner, P., Scheler, F., Pointer, C., Döhler, D., Yokosawa, T., Spiecker, E.,... Bachmann, J. (2021). ZnS Ultrathin Interfacial Layers for Optimizing Carrier Management in Sb2S3-based Photovoltaics. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 13(10), 11861–11868. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c21365

MLA:

Büttner, Pascal, et al. "ZnS Ultrathin Interfacial Layers for Optimizing Carrier Management in Sb2S3-based Photovoltaics." ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 13.10 (2021): 11861–11868.

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