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- Kesterit (1) (remove)
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- JP Photovoltaik (1)
The chemical and electronic structure of the interfaces of kesterite-based and related absorber materials in thin-film solar cell device-relevant layer stacks have been investigated with x-ray based spectroscopic techniques (XPS, HAXPES, XAES, XES, and XAS). The analyzed materials are CZTS absorbers with their interfaces to the Mo back contact and to different Zn(O,S)-buffer layers, SnS absorbers with partly N-doped ZnO buffer layers, and 2 absorbers with (Cd,Zn)S buffer layers.
We find an unchanged CZTS surface in this series which has a profound effect on the ZnOS growth. Instead of a constant composition throughout the buffer thickness, we find S-rich material growing directly on the CZTS in the ALD process. The conduction band offset is found to be around -0.21(+-0.15) eV. The measured cliff is reduced by chemical interface modification towards a flat band alignment.
The interface effect during annealing at the CZTS back contact where MoS2 forms occurs even at low annealing temperatures below 500°C. Sn spectra of liftoff CZTS back sides, annealed on the Mo contact, resemble the precursor at all temperatures while Sn spectra of CZTS front sides are almost single phase after standard annealing. A TiN interlayer was effectively introduced to prevent reactions at the CZTS/Mo interface.
We find a strong impact of ALD deposited ZnO on oxidized SnS absorber surfaces, resulting in metallic Sn formation. In contrast, doped ZnO:N reduces the SnS much less agressively. The strong downwards bending for both ZnO and SnS at the ZnO/SnS junction that we find for undoped ZnO contact layers is drastically reduced if ZnO:N contact layers are used. The smaller cliff in the conduction band of 0.2 eV for ZnO:N/SnS makes this junction much more interesting for solar cell applications than the ZnO/SnS with a large cliff of 0.55 eV.
The chemical analysis of the (Cd,Zn)S:Ga/CuSbS2 reveals chemical interaction at the junction. We find an additional species on the high energy side of the Cu peak for all samples. The interface species can be explained with the changed buffer composition at the interface, particularly low S and Cd content and increased Ga concentration, and could also be affected by the presence of O and hydroxides. We find an upwards surface band bending of -0.15 eV for the bare absorber. At the junction, we see downwards band bending of up to 0.2(+-0.09) eV in the absorber and strong upwards band bending of -0.75(+-0.28) eV in the buffer. The junction is not an abrupt transition from one homogenious material to another. The buffer growth is strongly affected by the absorber. Also the electronic structure on both sides is significantly affected. We find a conduction band alignment with a large cliff of -1.3(+-0.3) eV.