Status of materials and device modelling for kesterite solar cells

Samantha N. Hood; Aron Walsh; Clas Persson; Konstantina Iordanidou; Dan Huang; Mukesh Kumar; Zacharie Jehl; Maykel Courel; Johan Lauwaert; Sanghyun Lee

doi:10.1088/2515-7655/ab2dda

Status of materials and device modelling for kesterite solar cells

Samantha N. Hood, Aron Walsh, Clas Persson, Konstantina Iordanidou, Dan Huang, Mukesh Kumar, Zacharie Jehl, Maykel Courel, Johan Lauwaert, Sanghyun Lee

Department of Physics

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

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Kesterite semiconductors, derived from the mineral Cu₂(Zn,Fe)SnS₄, adopt superstructures of the zincblende archetype. This family of semiconductors is chemically flexible with the possibility to tune the physical properties over a large range by modifying the chemical composition, while preserving the same structural backbone. In the simplest case, three metals (e.g. Cu, Zn and Sn) occupy the cation sublattice, which gives rise to a range of competing orderings (polymorphs) and the possibility for order–disorder transitions. The rich physics of the sulphide, selenide, and mixed-anion materials make them attractive for computer simulations in order to provide deeper insights and to direct experiments to the most promising material combinations and processing regimes. This topical review assesses the status of first-principles electronic structure calculations, optical modelling, and photovoltaic device simulations of kesterite semiconductors. Recent progress is discussed, and immediate challenges are outlined, in particular towards overcoming the voltage deficit in Cu₂ZnSnS₄ and Cu₂ZnSnSe₄ solar cells.

Original language	English
Article number	042004
Journal	JPhys Energy
Volume	1
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7655/ab2dda
State	Published - Oct 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
A W thanks Su-Huai Wei for introducing him to kesterite semiconductors, and all group members that have been involved in the journey including Adam Jackson, Suzy Wallace, Jarvist Frost, Jonathan Skelton, Sunghyun Kim, and Jisang Park. The authors would also like to thank Edgardo Saucedo for bringing together this team of authors. Our research has been funded by the EU Horizon2020 Framework (STARCELL, Grant No. 720907) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT)(No. 2018R1C1B6008728).

Funding Information:
S L greatly thanks Dr Donghwan Kim for his life-long guidance and acknowledges CSRC for the support.

Funding Information:
M C acknowledges PRO-SNI support from the University of Guadalajara. Z J acknowledges the TecnioSPring Plus program from the Catalonia region and the European Marie Curie Program.

Funding Information:
We thank the Research Council of Norway (projects 243642, 221469, and 251131) as well as the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research for financial support. We acknowledge the access to high-performance computer resources provided through NOTUR in Norway and SNIC in Sweden. M K thanks Dr. B C Mohanti at Thapar Institute for valuable discussions on the experimental challenges.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Keywords

Defects
Device modelling
Kesterite solar cells
Material modelling
Photovoltaics

Access to Document

10.1088/2515-7655/ab2dda

Cite this

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title = "Status of materials and device modelling for kesterite solar cells",

abstract = "Kesterite semiconductors, derived from the mineral Cu2(Zn,Fe)SnS4, adopt superstructures of the zincblende archetype. This family of semiconductors is chemically flexible with the possibility to tune the physical properties over a large range by modifying the chemical composition, while preserving the same structural backbone. In the simplest case, three metals (e.g. Cu, Zn and Sn) occupy the cation sublattice, which gives rise to a range of competing orderings (polymorphs) and the possibility for order–disorder transitions. The rich physics of the sulphide, selenide, and mixed-anion materials make them attractive for computer simulations in order to provide deeper insights and to direct experiments to the most promising material combinations and processing regimes. This topical review assesses the status of first-principles electronic structure calculations, optical modelling, and photovoltaic device simulations of kesterite semiconductors. Recent progress is discussed, and immediate challenges are outlined, in particular towards overcoming the voltage deficit in Cu2ZnSnS4 and Cu2ZnSnSe4 solar cells.",

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author = "Hood, {Samantha N.} and Aron Walsh and Clas Persson and Konstantina Iordanidou and Dan Huang and Mukesh Kumar and Zacharie Jehl and Maykel Courel and Johan Lauwaert and Sanghyun Lee",

note = "Funding Information: A W thanks Su-Huai Wei for introducing him to kesterite semiconductors, and all group members that have been involved in the journey including Adam Jackson, Suzy Wallace, Jarvist Frost, Jonathan Skelton, Sunghyun Kim, and Jisang Park. The authors would also like to thank Edgardo Saucedo for bringing together this team of authors. Our research has been funded by the EU Horizon2020 Framework (STARCELL, Grant No. 720907) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT)(No. 2018R1C1B6008728). Funding Information: S L greatly thanks Dr Donghwan Kim for his life-long guidance and acknowledges CSRC for the support. Funding Information: M C acknowledges PRO-SNI support from the University of Guadalajara. Z J acknowledges the TecnioSPring Plus program from the Catalonia region and the European Marie Curie Program. Funding Information: We thank the Research Council of Norway (projects 243642, 221469, and 251131) as well as the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research for financial support. We acknowledge the access to high-performance computer resources provided through NOTUR in Norway and SNIC in Sweden. M K thanks Dr. B C Mohanti at Thapar Institute for valuable discussions on the experimental challenges. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.",

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AU - Hood, Samantha N.

AU - Walsh, Aron

AU - Persson, Clas

AU - Iordanidou, Konstantina

AU - Huang, Dan

AU - Kumar, Mukesh

AU - Jehl, Zacharie

AU - Courel, Maykel

AU - Lauwaert, Johan

AU - Lee, Sanghyun

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N2 - Kesterite semiconductors, derived from the mineral Cu2(Zn,Fe)SnS4, adopt superstructures of the zincblende archetype. This family of semiconductors is chemically flexible with the possibility to tune the physical properties over a large range by modifying the chemical composition, while preserving the same structural backbone. In the simplest case, three metals (e.g. Cu, Zn and Sn) occupy the cation sublattice, which gives rise to a range of competing orderings (polymorphs) and the possibility for order–disorder transitions. The rich physics of the sulphide, selenide, and mixed-anion materials make them attractive for computer simulations in order to provide deeper insights and to direct experiments to the most promising material combinations and processing regimes. This topical review assesses the status of first-principles electronic structure calculations, optical modelling, and photovoltaic device simulations of kesterite semiconductors. Recent progress is discussed, and immediate challenges are outlined, in particular towards overcoming the voltage deficit in Cu2ZnSnS4 and Cu2ZnSnSe4 solar cells.

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KW - Material modelling

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Status of materials and device modelling for kesterite solar cells

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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