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Fabrication and characterization of kesterite Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 thin films deposited by electrostatic spray assisted vapour deposition method
Author(s) -
Liu J. P.,
Choy K. L.,
Placidi M.,
LópezGarcía J.,
Saucedo E.,
Colombara D.,
Robert E.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201431374
Subject(s) - czts , kesterite , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , materials science , raman spectroscopy , fabrication , thin film , chemical engineering , band gap , solar cell , deposition (geology) , analytical chemistry (journal) , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , optics , chemistry , medicine , paleontology , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , chromatography , sediment , engineering , biology
Most of the high efficiency kesterite solar cells are fabricated by vacuum or hydrazine‐based solution methods which have drawbacks, such as high cost, high toxicity or explosivity. In our contribution, an alternative non‐vacuum and environmental friendly deposition technology called electrostatic spray assisted vapour deposition (ESAVD) has been used for the cost‐effective growth of Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) thin films with well controlled structure and composition. CZTS films have been characterized using a combination of XRD, XPS, SEM‐EDX, AFM, and Raman spectroscopy. The results demonstrated that adherent, uniform and homogeneous CZTS films without apparent secondary phases have been produced by ESAVD. The atomic ratios measured by EDX are Cu/(Zn + Sn) = 0.88 and Zn/Sn = 1.17,which are very close with the reported high efficiency solar cells and can be finely tuned by formulating the precursor.CZTS films exhibited a typical optical band gap of 1.53 eV from UV–Vis analysis. Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 produced by the ESAVD are being optimized towards the fabrication of high efficiency photovoltaic devices.