Estimation of band alignment at CdS/Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 hetero‐interface by direct XPS measurements

Investigation of absorber and heterojunction in the pure sulphide kesterite

This paper aims to study the properties of the absorber layer and the heterojunction in kesterite solar cells. The Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films were layered on a glass substrate from a colloidal solution of metal salts and thiourea dissolved in a mixture of water and ethanol and deposited by spin coating technique. The samples were then heat treated in a furnace, in the presence of sulphur powder and under a nitrogen gas flow. The results revealed the formation of homogeneous layers of a pure kesterite phase of CZTS crystallites after heat treatment with correct stoichiometry and oxidation states. The optical transmission measurements indicate an energy band-gap of 1.4 eV and an absorption c…

Development of Kesterite (Cu2ZnSnS4) absorber material for solar cell application.

Kesterite-based solar cells still suffer from limited efficiency due to various problems related to the absorber and device interfaces. Absorber defects and non-ideal band alignment at the absorber/buffer hetero-interface, resulting in a cliff-like conduction band offset (CBO), and non-ideal absorber/back contact interfaces are the main factors limiting efficiency.This thesis focuses mainly on the absorber-related problems such as the secondary phases and the band alignment at the absorber-buffer heterojunction as well as the back interface.In the first part, the properties of the absorber layer were studied. Thin layers of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) were obtained by chemical route. This study reveal…

Partial cation-substitution in the sulphide kesterite: Absorber and heterojunction engineering

International audience; The kesterite-based solar cells still suffer from a low conversion efficiency due to the large defect of the open circuit voltage Voc. This defect is mainly due to several problems related to the absorber material and the device interfaces. It has been reported that the partial cation substitution in the kesterite structure, can improve many properties of the absorbent layer and the device, i.e. improve the grain size, minimise the anti-site defects and disorder in the Cu-Zn plane, ameliorate the charge separation at the buffer/absorber interface. In this work, thin films of suphide kesterite are made by substituting copper (Cu) with silver (Ag) and zinc with mangane…