TY - JOUR
T1 - Low-Temperature Atomic Layer Deposition of CuSbS2 for Thin-Film Photovoltaics
AU - Riha, Shannon C.
AU - Koegel, Alexandra A.
AU - Emery, Jonathan D.
AU - Pellin, Michael J.
AU - Martinson, Alex B.F.
N1 - Funding Information:
S.C.R. and A.A.K. were supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) under the Visiting Faculty Program (VFP). S.C.R. was supported in part by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Postdoctoral Research Awards under the EERE Solar Program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) for the DOE. ORISE is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) under DOE contract No. DE-AC05-06OR23100. J.D.E., A.B.F.M., and M.J.P. were supported by the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research (ANSER) Center an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Science under award No. DE-SC0001059. The research was performed at Argonne National Laboratory a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Laboratory operated under contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 by UChicago Argonne, LLC. Use of the Center for Nanoscale Materials, including resources in the Electron Microscopy Center, was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2017/2/8
Y1 - 2017/2/8
N2 - Copper antimony sulfide (CuSbS2) has been gaining traction as an earth-abundant absorber for thin-film photovoltaics given its near ideal band gap for solar energy conversion (∼1.5 eV), large absorption coefficient (>104 cm-1), and elemental abundance. Through careful in situ analysis of the deposition conditions, a low-temperature route to CuSbS2 thin films via atomic layer deposition has been developed. After a short (15 min) postprocess anneal at 225 °C, the ALD-grown CuSbS2 films were crystalline with micron-sized grains, exhibited a band gap of 1.6 eV and an absorption coefficient >104 cm-1, as well as a hole concentration of 1015 cm-3. Finally, the ALD-grown CuSbS2 films were paired with ALD-grown TiO2 to form a photovoltaic device. This photovoltaic device architecture represents one of a very limited number of Cd-free CuSbS2 PV device stacks reported to date, and it is the first to demonstrate an open-circuit voltage on par with CuSbS2/CdS heterojunction PV devices. While far from optimized, this work demonstrates the potential for ALD-grown CuSbS2 thin films in environmentally benign photovoltaics.
AB - Copper antimony sulfide (CuSbS2) has been gaining traction as an earth-abundant absorber for thin-film photovoltaics given its near ideal band gap for solar energy conversion (∼1.5 eV), large absorption coefficient (>104 cm-1), and elemental abundance. Through careful in situ analysis of the deposition conditions, a low-temperature route to CuSbS2 thin films via atomic layer deposition has been developed. After a short (15 min) postprocess anneal at 225 °C, the ALD-grown CuSbS2 films were crystalline with micron-sized grains, exhibited a band gap of 1.6 eV and an absorption coefficient >104 cm-1, as well as a hole concentration of 1015 cm-3. Finally, the ALD-grown CuSbS2 films were paired with ALD-grown TiO2 to form a photovoltaic device. This photovoltaic device architecture represents one of a very limited number of Cd-free CuSbS2 PV device stacks reported to date, and it is the first to demonstrate an open-circuit voltage on par with CuSbS2/CdS heterojunction PV devices. While far from optimized, this work demonstrates the potential for ALD-grown CuSbS2 thin films in environmentally benign photovoltaics.
KW - CuSbS
KW - atomic layer deposition
KW - copper antimony sulfide
KW - photovoltaics
KW - ternary metal sulfide
KW - thin film
KW - thin-film solar cell
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U2 - 10.1021/acsami.6b13033
DO - 10.1021/acsami.6b13033
M3 - Article
C2 - 28117960
AN - SCOPUS:85011994956
VL - 9
SP - 4667
EP - 4673
JO - ACS applied materials & interfaces
JF - ACS applied materials & interfaces
SN - 1944-8244
IS - 5
ER -
