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Growth and Photovoltaic Device Application of Cu2BaGe1- xSnxSe4Films Prepared by Selenization of Sequentially Deposited Precursors

Publication ,  Journal Article
Kim, Y; Mitzi, DB
Published in: ACS Applied Energy Materials
October 25, 2021

Toward suppressing the formation of anti-site defects and related defect clusters in kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4-xSex (CZTS) absorber films, Cu2-II-IV-X4 (II = Sr, Ba; IV = Ge, Sn; X = S, Se) compounds have recently been introduced. Cu2BaGe1-xSnxSe4 (CBGTSe) is one of the materials that belongs to this chalcogenide family, with a tunable band gap (1.6 eV ≤ Eg ≤ 1.9 eV, based on the x value) having been demonstrated for bulk samples. In this report, we demonstrate the deposition of CBGTSe films and report the first solar cells based on CBGTSe as a light absorber. CBGTSe films have been fabricated from selenization of Cu-Ba-Ge-Sn precursor layers sequentially deposited using a combination of vacuum-based sputtering (for Cu, Sn, and Ge) and evaporation (for Ba) techniques. We observe that the films prepared by direct selenization of as-deposited precursors exhibit blisters, originating from partial delamination among precursor layers during the selenization process. Introducing a vacuum pre-annealing step mitigates this issue and enables the formation of high-quality CBGTSe films. Also, ex situ film growth studies show that the Cu content correlates with the formation of a Cu-rich intermediate phase and plays an important role in the formation of single-phase CBGTSe films with large grain sizes. Finally, our first prototype CBGTSe solar cells exhibit a maximum power conversion efficiency of 3.06%.

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Published In

ACS Applied Energy Materials

DOI

EISSN

2574-0962

Publication Date

October 25, 2021

Volume

4

Issue

10

Start / End Page

11528 / 11536

Related Subject Headings

  • 40 Engineering
  • 34 Chemical sciences
 

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Kim, Y., & Mitzi, D. B. (2021). Growth and Photovoltaic Device Application of Cu2BaGe1- xSnxSe4Films Prepared by Selenization of Sequentially Deposited Precursors. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 4(10), 11528–11536. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.1c02259
Kim, Y., and D. B. Mitzi. “Growth and Photovoltaic Device Application of Cu2BaGe1- xSnxSe4Films Prepared by Selenization of Sequentially Deposited Precursors.” ACS Applied Energy Materials 4, no. 10 (October 25, 2021): 11528–36. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.1c02259.
Kim, Y., and D. B. Mitzi. “Growth and Photovoltaic Device Application of Cu2BaGe1- xSnxSe4Films Prepared by Selenization of Sequentially Deposited Precursors.” ACS Applied Energy Materials, vol. 4, no. 10, Oct. 2021, pp. 11528–36. Scopus, doi:10.1021/acsaem.1c02259.

Published In

ACS Applied Energy Materials

DOI

EISSN

2574-0962

Publication Date

October 25, 2021

Volume

4

Issue

10

Start / End Page

11528 / 11536

Related Subject Headings

  • 40 Engineering
  • 34 Chemical sciences