Sb2S3 Solar Cells

Silicon wafer solar cells continue to be the leading photovoltaic technology, and in many places are now providing a substantial portion of electricity generation. Further adoption of this technology will require processing that minimises losses in device performance. A fundamental mechanism for efficiency loss is the recombination of photo-generated charge carriers at the unavoidable cell surfaces. Dielectric coatings have been shown to largely prevent these losses through a combination of different passivation mechanisms. This review aims to provide an overview of the dielectric passivation coatings developed in the past two decades using a standardised methodology to characterise the metrics of surface recombination across all techniques and materials. The efficacy of a large set of materials and methods has been evaluated using such metrics and a discussion on the current state and prospects for further surface passivation improvements is provided.

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Dielectric surface passivation for silicon solar cells: A review

Development of antimony sulfide–selenide Sb 2 (S, Se) 3 -based solar cells

Review of Recent Progress in Antimony Chalcogenide‐Based Solar Cells: Materials and Devices

Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon

Low-cost hybrid solar cells have made tremendous steps forward during the past decade owing to the implementation of extremely thin inorganic coatings as absorber layers, typically in combination with organic hole transporters. Using only extremely thin films of these absorbers reduces the requirement of single crystalline high-quality materials and paves the way for low-cost solution processing compatible with roll-to-roll fabrication processes. To date, the most efficient absorber material, except for the recently introduced organic–inorganic lead halide perovskites, has been Sb2S3, which can be implemented in hybrid photovoltaics using a simple chemical bath deposition. Current high-efficiency Sb2S3 devices utilize absorber coatings on nanostructured TiO2 electrodes in combination with polymeric hole transporters. This geometry has so far been the state of the art, even though flat junction devices would be conceptually simpler with the additional potential of higher open circuit voltages due to reduced charge carrier recombination. Besides, the role of the hole transporter is not completely clarified yet. In particular, additional photocurrent contribution from the polymers has not been directly shown, which points toward detrimental parasitic light absorption in the polymers. This study presents a fine-tuned chemical bath deposition method that allows fabricating solution-processed low-cost flat junction Sb2S3 solar cells with the highest open circuit voltage reported so far for chemical bath devices and efficiencies exceeding 4%. Characterization of back-illuminated solar cells in combination with transfer matrix-based simulations further allows to address the issue of absorption losses in the hole transport material and outline a pathway toward more efficient future devices.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/advs.201500059

Toward High-Efficiency Solution-Processed Planar Heterojunction Sb2S3 Solar Cells.

Electrical, optical and structural investigation of plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposited amorphous silicon oxynitride films for solar cell applications

E. Zimmermann, T. Pfadler, J. Kalb, Dr. J. A. Dorman, D. Sommer, Prof. G. Hahn, Dr. J. Weickert, Prof. L. Schmidt-Mende Department of Physics University of Konstanz 78457 Konstanz , Germany E-mail: jonas.weickert@uni-konstanz.de This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Toward High-Effi ciency Solution-Processed Planar Heterojunction Sb 2 S 3 Solar Cells

Influence of post-hydrogenation upon electrical, optical and structural properties of hydrogen-less sputter-deposited amorphous silicon

The impact on the performance of GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) of in situ ammonia (NH3) pre-treatment prior to the deposition of silicon nitride (SiN) passivation with low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD ) is investigated. Three different NH3 pre-treatment durations (0, 3, and 10 min) were compared in terms of interface properties and device performance. A reduction of oxygen (O) at the interface between SiN and epi-structure is detected by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM )-electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) measurements in the sample subjected to 10 min of pre-treatment. The samples subjected to NH3 pre-treatment show a reduced surface-related current dispersion of 9% (compared to 16% for the untreated sample), which is attributed to the reduction of O at the SiN/epi interface. Furthermore, NH3 pre-treatment for 10 min significantly improves the current dispersion uniformity from 14.5% to 1.9%. The reduced trapping effects result in a high output power of 3.4 W mm−1 at 3 GHz (compared to 2.6 W mm−1 for the untreated sample). These results demonstrate that the in situ NH3 pre-treatment before LPCVD of SiN passivation is critical and can effectively improves the large-signal microwave performance of GaN HEMTs.

Daniel Sommer

Papers

Toward High-Efficiency Solution-Processed Planar Heterojunction Sb2S3 Solar Cells.

Electrical, optical and structural investigation of plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposited amorphous silicon oxynitride films for solar cell applications

Toward High-Effi ciency Solution-Processed Planar Heterojunction Sb 2 S 3 Solar Cells

Influence of post-hydrogenation upon electrical, optical and structural properties of hydrogen-less sputter-deposited amorphous silicon

Impact of in situ NH3 pre-treatment of LPCVD SiN passivation on GaN HEMT performance