Lattice-matched Cu2ZnSnS4-CeO2 solar cell with open circuit voltage boost

CeO₂, a non-toxic earth-abundant compound, has a nearly optimal band alignment with Cu₂ZnSnS₄ and the two materials are lattice-matched within 0.4%. This makes it possible to achieve an <named-content rid="kwd1.2" content-type="sem:AIPTh1.2">epitaxial</named-content> interface when <named-content rid="kwd1.2" content-type="sem:AIPTh1.2">growing</named-content> CeO₂ by chemical bath <named-content rid="kwd1.3 kwd1.10" content-type="sem:AIPTh1.2">deposition</named-content> at temperatures as low as 50 °C. The open circuit voltage improvement is then attributed to a decrease in the interface recombination rate through formation of a high-quality heterointerface.

Andrea Crovetto, Chang Yan,Beniamino Iandolo, Fangzhou Zhou, John Stride, Jørgen Schou, Xiaojing Hao and Ole Hansen

Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 233904 (2016);
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4971779

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