Physical vapor deposition of Bi2S3 as absorber material in thin film photovoltaics

Abstract In order to investigate alternative absorber materials for inorganic solar cells, thin films of bismuth trisulfide (Bi2S3) were deposited under high vacuum conditions by the thermal evaporation method from compound material. The effects of the substrate temperature during deposition on the structural, stoichiometric, optical and electrical properties were investigated. Polycrystalline thin films close to an ideal stoichiometry could be deposited for temperatures TSub = 80–290 °C; thereby a transition from rough needle-shaped particles with (hk0)-orientation parallel to the surface of the substrate towards block shaped grains with a preferred direction out of the surface could be ob…

Detailed photoluminescence study of vapor deposited Bi2S3 films of different surface morphology (Phys. Status Solidi B 11/2014)

Detailed photoluminescence study of vapor deposited Bi2S3 films of different surface morphology

authorenWe present a temperature- and intensity-dependent photoluminescence (PL) study of the binary semiconductor on the mm-scale and a laterally resolved PL measurement with a resolution of nm. The films can show a rather rough surface with needles and flakes of with different orientations as well as very flat and smooth surface morphology. Despite a band gap of eV the films show a splitting of quasi-Fermi levels (QFL) of meV at room temperature. By means of temperature-dependent PL we have located several radiative and non-radiative defect states in the band gap. For a better understanding of this thin film semiconductor a full analysis of the laterally resolved PL measurement including …