Structure, Morphology, and Photoelectric Performances of Te-Sb2Se3 Thin Film Prepared via Magnetron Sputtering.

Donglou Ren,Hongli Ma,Guangxing Liang,Xianghua Zhang,Xue Luo,Michel Cathelinaud,Zhuanghao Zheng,Shuo Chen,Xvsheng Qiao,Xianping Fan

doi:10.3390/nano10071358

Abstract

Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) has been widely investigated as a promising absorber material for photovoltaic devices. However, low open-circuit voltage (Voc) limits the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of Sb2Se3-based cells, largely due to the low-charge carrier density. Herein, high-quality n-type (Tellurium) Te-doped Sb2Se3 thin films were successfully prepared using a homemade target via magnetron sputtering. The Te atoms were expected to be inserted in the spacing of (Sb4Se6)n ribbons based on increased lattice parameters in this study. Moreover, the thin film was found to possess a narrow and direct band gap of approximately 1.27 eV, appropriate for harvesting the solar energy. It was found that the photoelectric performance is related to not only the quality of films but also the preferred growth orientation. The Te-Sb2Se3 film annealed at 325 °C showed a maximum photocurrent density of 1.91 mA/cm2 with a light intensity of 10.5 mW/cm2 at a bias of 1.4 V. The fast response and recovery speed confirms the great potential of these films as excellent photodetectors.

Highlights

The current most commercialized thin-film solar cells are copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe)
The ribbons are held together by weak van der Waals forces. Once they are parallel to the grain boundary plane, the device performance can be significantly enhanced by eliminating dangling bonds at the grain boundary
The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the Sb2Se3 solar cells has had a very rapid evolution within only 7 years, reaching 9.2% in 2019 based on the core–shell nanorod configuration [8]. This is ascribed to a series of excellent properties of this binary material, including a narrow band gap (1.1–1.3 eV), high absorption coefficient (>105 cm−1) and fast carrier transport along the [001] orientation [5,8,9,10,11]

Summary

Introduction

The current most commercialized thin-film solar cells are copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe). The complex composition of CIGS is an issue for industrial production To overcome these problems, many researchers have explored other earth-abundant and nontoxic absorber materials that consist of ribbons, for instance, antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) [3,4] and antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) [5,6,7]. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the Sb2Se3 solar cells has had a very rapid evolution within only 7 years, reaching 9.2% in 2019 based on the core–shell nanorod configuration [8] This is ascribed to a series of excellent properties of this binary material, including a narrow band gap (1.1–1.3 eV), high absorption coefficient (>105 cm−1) and fast carrier transport along the [001] orientation [5,8,9,10,11]

Objectives

Methods

Results