Seed Layer Optimisation for Ultra-Thin Sb2Se3 Solar Cells on TiO2 by Vapour Transport Deposition

• Published in: Materials 2022-11, Vol.15 (23), p.8356
• Main Authors: Juškėnas, Remigijus, Naujokaitis, Arnas, Drabavičius, Audrius, Pakštas, Vidas, Vainauskas, Deividas, Kondrotas, Rokas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorbers; Antimony compounds; Buffer layers; Cadmium telluride; Circuits; Copper; Energy conversion efficiency; Morphology; Optimization; Photovoltaic cells; Pinholes; Selenides; Short circuit currents; Solar cells; Substrates; Thin films; Titanium dioxide; Vacuum deposition
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma15238356

Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) material has drawn considerable attention as an Earth-abundant and non-toxic photovoltaic absorber. The power conversion efficiency of Sb2Se3-based solar cells increased from less than 2% to over 10% in a decade. Different deposition methods were implemented to synthesize Sb2Se3 thin films, and various device structures were tested. In search of a more environmentally friendly device composition, the common CdS buffer layer is being replaced with oxides. It was identified that on oxide substrates such as TiO2 using vacuum-based close-space deposition methods, an intermediate deposition step was required to produce high-quality thin films. However, little or no investigation was carried out using another very successful vacuum deposition approach in Sb2Se3 technology called vapour transport deposition (VTD). In this work, we present optimized VTD process conditions to achieve compact, pinhole-free, ultra-thin (