Abstract
Polycrystalline powder samples of eight very far off‐stoichiometric Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) compounds (off‐stoichiometry types A–D) are grown using the solid‐state reaction method in evacuated silica tubes. An additional thermal annealing is performed, in order to study the influence of annealing on the phase content and stoichiometry of the CZTSe phases formed under these conditions. The structural characterization of the synthesized materials before as well as after annealing is carried out by powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), paying a special attention to the possibility of minimization the content of secondary phases. Wavelength dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (WDX) is used to determine the chemical composition of the obtained phases, paying a special attention to the phase constituents as well as the evolution of the CZTSe phases after the additional annealing. A comparative study of the phase content of very far off‐stoichiometric CZTSe compounds is presented. The possible limits of the existence region of the kesterite CZTSe are discussed.
Highlights
Quaternary Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) is a promising low cost, environmentally friendly semiconductor material for absorber layers in thin film solar cells due to a number of advantageous properties it possesses[1]
A common phenomenon observed in CZTSe - based photovoltaic devices is a low open circuit voltage with respect to the band gap, evidencing the existence of a number of challenges that must still be faced in order to achieve high quality, efficient solar cells
The existence of off-stoichiometric single phase CZTSe as well as intrinsic point defects belonging to different off-stoichiometry types was studied recently [9, 10], showing a relatively small region of existence of single phase CZTSe, while the limits of the co-existence of kesterite and secondary phases haven’t been reached yet
Summary
Quaternary Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) is a promising low cost, environmentally friendly semiconductor material for absorber layers in thin film solar cells due to a number of advantageous properties it possesses[1]. Polycrystalline powder samples of eight very far off-stoichiometric Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) compounds (off-stoichiometry types A - D) are grown using the solid-state reaction method in evacuated silica tubes.
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