Germanium substitution effect on the property and performance of Cu2ZnSnSe4 thin films and its solar cell having absorber layer made by sputtering with single metallic target plus selenization

We report on the germanium substitution effect on the Cu2ZnSnSe4 solar cell performance with absorber layer prepared by sputtering with a single metallic target plus further selenization. We synthesized the Cu2Zn(Sn1-xGex)Se films with the [Ge]/([Ge] + [Sn]) percentages of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% when different x ratios were 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2. Defect chemistry was studied by measuring the structural, electrical, and optical properties of CZTGSe as a function of dopant concentration. The enhanced device performance was shown with the increased Ge content to CZTSe. The solar cell was fabricated with a stack structure of Ag/ITO/ZnO/CdS/CZTGSe/Mo/SLG. The efficiencies of CZTGSe films at the Ge percentages of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% were 1.90, 2.35, 3.32, 4.64, and 4.24%, respectively. The further improvement in conversion efficiency of 7.23% was achieved by incorporating a NaF layer between the Mo bottom electrode and CZTGSe absorber to form a Mo-NaF bilayer.Graphical abstractA schematic diagram of DC magnetron sputtering system for sputter single metallic target of CZTGSe.
Source: Materials Science and Engineering: B - Category: Materials Science Source Type: research