Templated Growth and Passivation of Vertically Oriented Antimony Selenide Thin Films for High‐Efficiency Solar Cells in Substrate Configuration

Abstract

Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) is a promising low‐cost photovoltaic material with a 1D crystal structure. The grain orientation and defect passivation play a critical role in determining the performance of polycrystalline Sb2Se3 thin‐film solar cells. Here, a seed layer is introduced on a molybdenum (Mo) substrate to template the growth of a vertically oriented, columnar Sb2Se3 absorber layer by closed space sublimation. By controlling the grain orientation and compactness of the Sb2Se3 seeds, obtain high‐quality Sb2Se3 absorber layers with passive Sb2Se3/Mo interfaces is obtained, which in turn improve the transport of photoexcited charge carriers through the absorber layer and its interfaces. Post‐deposition annealing of absorber layers in ambient air is further utilized to passivate the defects in Sb2Se3 and enhance the quality of the front heterojunction. As a result of systematic processing optimization, Sb2Se3 planar heterojunction solar cells are fabricated in substrate configuration with a champion power conversion efficiency of 8.5%.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 25, 2021
Source ID
10.1002/adfm.202110032

Entities

People

  • Chuanxiao Xiao
  • Chun‐sheng Jiang
  • Deng‐Bing Li
  • Manoj K. Jamarkattel
  • Michael J. Heben
  • Mowafak Al‐jassim
  • Rasha A Awni
  • Sandip S Bista
  • Suman Rijal
  • Yanfa Yan
  • Zhaoning Song

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  • University of Toledo

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Microwave Engineering.
  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology
  • Thin Film Deposition Science.

Technology Areas

  • Space