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Post‐deposition annealing and interfacial atomic layer deposition buffer layers of Sb 2 Se 3 /CdS stacks for reduced interface recombination and increased open‐circuit voltages
Author(s) -
Weiss Thomas Paul,
MinguezBacho Ignacio,
Zuccalà Elena,
Melchiorre Michele,
Valle Nathalie,
El Adib Brahime,
Yokosawa Tadahiro,
Spiecker Erdmann,
Bachmann Julien,
Dale Phillip J.,
Siebentritt Susanne
Publication year - 2023
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.3625
Subject(s) - photoluminescence , optoelectronics , materials science , open circuit voltage , annealing (glass) , atomic layer deposition , band gap , solar cell , thin film , analytical chemistry (journal) , voltage , nanotechnology , chemistry , electrical engineering , composite material , chromatography , engineering
Currently, Sb 2 Se 3 thin films receive considerable research interest as a solar cell absorber material. When completed into a device stack, the major bottleneck for further device improvement is the open‐circuit voltage, which is the focus of the work presented here. Polycrystalline thin‐film Sb 2 Se 3 absorbers and solar cells are prepared in substrate configuration and the dominant recombination path is studied using photoluminescence spectroscopy and temperature‐dependent current–voltage characteristics. It is found that a post‐deposition annealing after the CdS buffer layer deposition can effectively remove interface recombination since the activation energy of the dominant recombination path becomes equal to the bandgap of the Sb 2 Se 3 absorber. The increased activation energy is accompanied by an increased photoluminescence yield, that is, reduced non‐radiative recombination. Finished Sb 2 Se 3 solar cell devices reach open‐circuit voltages as high as 485 mV. Contrarily, the short‐circuit current density of these devices is limiting the efficiency after the post‐deposition annealing. It is shown that atomic layer‐deposited intermediate buffer layers such as TiO 2 or Sb 2 S 3 can pave the way for overcoming this limitation.