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Accelerated development of CuSbS 2 thin film photovoltaic device prototypes
Author(s) -
Welch Adam W.,
Baranowski Lauryn L.,
Zawadzki Pawel,
DeHart Clay,
Johnston Steve,
Lany Stephan,
Wolden Colin A.,
Zakutayev Andriy
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
progress in photovoltaics: research and applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.286
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1099-159X
pISSN - 1062-7995
DOI - 10.1002/pip.2735
Subject(s) - photovoltaic system , copper indium gallium selenide solar cells , fabrication , materials science , optoelectronics , thin film , solar cell , open circuit voltage , energy conversion efficiency , photovoltaics , voltage , computer science , nanotechnology , electrical engineering , engineering , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
Development of alternative thin film photovoltaic technologies is an important research topic because of the potential of low‐cost, high‐efficiency solar cells to produce terawatt levels of clean power. However, this development of unexplored yet promising absorbers can be hindered by complications that arise during solar cell fabrication. Here, a high‐throughput combinatorial method is applied to accelerate development of photovoltaic devices, in this case, using the novel CuSbS 2 absorber via a newly developed three‐stage self‐regulated growth process to control absorber purity and orientation. Photovoltaic performance of the absorber, using the typical substrate CuIn x Ga 1 − x Se 2 (CIGS) device architecture, is explored as a function of absorber quality and thickness using a variety of back contacts. This study yields CuSbS 2 device prototypes with ~1% conversion efficiency, suggesting that the optimal CuSbS 2 device fabrication parameters and contact selection criteria are quite different than for CIGS, despite the similarity of these two absorbers. The CuSbS 2 device efficiency is at present limited by low short‐circuit current because of bulk recombination related to defects, and a small open‐circuit voltage because of a theoretically predicted cliff‐type conduction band offset between CuSbS 2 and CdS. Overall, these results illustrate both the potential and limits of combinatorial methods to accelerate the development of thin film photovoltaic devices using novel absorbers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.