Band alignment in SnS thin-film solar cells: Possible origin of the low conversion efficiency

Lee A. Burton; Aron Walsh

doi:10.1063/1.4801313

Band alignment in SnS thin-film solar cells: Possible origin of the low conversion efficiency

Lee A. Burton, Aron Walsh

Department of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

118 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tin sulfide is an attractive absorber material for low-cost thin-film solar cells. Despite the ideal physical properties of bulk SnS, the photovoltaic conversion efficiencies achieved in devices to date have been no greater than 2. Assessment of the valence band energy of the stable orthorhombic phase of SnS reveals a low ionisation potential (4.7 eV) in comparison to typical absorber materials (CdTe, CuInSe₂, and Cu₂ZnSnS₄). A band mis-alignment is therefore predicted with commonly used back contact and buffer layers. Alternative configurations are proposed that should improve device performance.

Original language	English
Article number	132111
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	102
Issue number	13
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4801313
State	Published - 1 Apr 2013

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title = "Band alignment in SnS thin-film solar cells: Possible origin of the low conversion efficiency",

abstract = "Tin sulfide is an attractive absorber material for low-cost thin-film solar cells. Despite the ideal physical properties of bulk SnS, the photovoltaic conversion efficiencies achieved in devices to date have been no greater than 2. Assessment of the valence band energy of the stable orthorhombic phase of SnS reveals a low ionisation potential (4.7 eV) in comparison to typical absorber materials (CdTe, CuInSe2, and Cu2ZnSnS4). A band mis-alignment is therefore predicted with commonly used back contact and buffer layers. Alternative configurations are proposed that should improve device performance.",

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note = "Funding Information: We thank Gilles Dennler for useful discussions and acknowledge membership of the UK's HPC Materials Chemistry Consortium, which was funded by EPSRC grant EP/F067496. A.W. acknowledges support from the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship, and L.A.B was funded by EPSRC (Grant No. EP/G03768X/1).",

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N1 - Funding Information: We thank Gilles Dennler for useful discussions and acknowledge membership of the UK's HPC Materials Chemistry Consortium, which was funded by EPSRC grant EP/F067496. A.W. acknowledges support from the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship, and L.A.B was funded by EPSRC (Grant No. EP/G03768X/1).

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AB - Tin sulfide is an attractive absorber material for low-cost thin-film solar cells. Despite the ideal physical properties of bulk SnS, the photovoltaic conversion efficiencies achieved in devices to date have been no greater than 2. Assessment of the valence band energy of the stable orthorhombic phase of SnS reveals a low ionisation potential (4.7 eV) in comparison to typical absorber materials (CdTe, CuInSe2, and Cu2ZnSnS4). A band mis-alignment is therefore predicted with commonly used back contact and buffer layers. Alternative configurations are proposed that should improve device performance.

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Band alignment in SnS thin-film solar cells: Possible origin of the low conversion efficiency

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