High photo-conversion efficiency Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin-film solar cells prepared by compound-precursors and metal-precursors

Abstract

Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) thin-film solar cells have been fabricated by various methods. Sputtering is one of the vacuum processes that can be used for the growth of the precursors. In this study, CZTSSe thin-films that were fabricated using metal-precursors and with a high efficiency of 12.3% were examined in a comparison with CZTSSe thin-films that were fabricated using compound-precursors, whose efficiency is 9.1%. Especially, the Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) analysis and local current measurement by conductive atomic force microscopy (c-AFM) show that their local electrical properties indicate completely opposite results. The grain boundaries (GBs) has a downward surface potential bending, and this repelled the minority carriers into the intragrains (IGs) in the sample from the metal-precursors. Therefore, we originally verified the differences between the carrier behaviors and the current flows on the surface. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.