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Inkjet-printed Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film absorbers and related solar cells

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

In this work, we present the deposition of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 CZTSSe absorbers by inkjet printing and their application in thin film solar cells. Inkjet printing is a promising approach, which can be easily adapted for industrial production. An attractive issue when using inkjet printing is its little demand on materials and low waste production during processing, thus reducing the cost of the devices. However, the ink properties, i.e. solvent, viscosity and surface tension are critical parameters for the applicability of a material in inkjet printing process. Another challenge of inkjet printing processing of thin films is to obtain a good ink’s wetting behavior of the substrate and hence a low contact angle of the ink on the substrate. The drying kinetics and the resulting film homogeneity is a very complex issue and need profound understanding. The viscosity of the precursor inks was tuned, which can be monitored by the evolution of contact angle of the inks on Mo substrate. We successfully obtained CZTSSe thin film absorbers with large grains up to 1.3 µm by annealing the inkjet printed Cu-Zn-Sn-S precursor under chalcogen-containing atmosphere. Structural properties of CZTSSe thin film absorbers were characterized by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy while the morphology was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Chemical composition was estimated by X-ray fluorescence and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Modulated surface photovoltage was used to monitor the charge separation behavior of the CZTSSe absorbers. Solar cells with glass/Mo/CZTSSe/CdS/i-ZnO/ZnO:Al/Ni:Al grid structures were fabricated based on the printed CZTSSe absorbers and efficiencies up to 6.4 % under standard AM 1.5 Sun simulator were achieved (cell area:0.5 cm2).