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Cover Picture: Radio frequency magnetron sputtered epitaxial Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 thin film on ZnS(100) (Phys. Status Solidi RRL 5/2014)
Author(s) -
Song Ning,
Li Wei,
Hao Xiaojing,
Huang Yidan,
Green Martin A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.201470526
Subject(s) - czts , materials science , thin film , optoelectronics , cadmium telluride photovoltaics , substrate (aquarium) , epitaxy , sputter deposition , optics , band gap , layer (electronics) , sputtering , nanotechnology , physics , geology , oceanography
Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) is regarded as one of the most promising absorber materials for solar cells due to its earth‐abundant composition, band gap energy of around 1.5 eV and the large absorption coefficient of over 10 4 cm –1 . Environment‐friendly and cost‐effective CZTS thin‐film solar cells are expected to be alternatives for commercialised Cu(InGa)Se 2 and CdTe solar cells. However, the highest efficiency of CZTS so far is considerably less than that of Cu(InGa)Se 2 of CdTe solar cells. To fully explore its potential, epitaxial growth of CZTS on ZnS(100) substrate was achieved by radio frequency magnetron sputtering for better understanding of the fundamental properties of the CZTS absorber (see the Letter by Ning Song et al. on pp. 404–407 ). The front cover image depicts a dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy image of the epitaxial CZTS film on ZnS(100), with insets on selective area electron diffraction patterns of the circled areas in the ZnS substrate and CZTS layer, respectively.