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. 2024 May 30;14(1):12460.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-56041-1.

Scrutinizing transport phenomena and recombination mechanisms in thin film Sb2S3 solar cells

Z Younsi  1 , F Meddour  1 , H Bencherif  2 , M Khalid Hossain  3   4 , Latha Marasamy  5 , P Sasikumar  6 , M S Revathy  7 , Suresh Ghotekar  8 , Mohammad R Karim  9 , Manikandan Ayyar  10 , Rajesh Haldhar  11 , Mirza H K Rubel  12
Affiliations

Scrutinizing transport phenomena and recombination mechanisms in thin film Sb2S3 solar cells

Z Younsi et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The Schockley-Quisser (SQ) limit of 28.64% is distant from the Sb2S3 solar cells' record power conversion efficiency (PCE), which is 8.00%. Such poor efficiency is mostly owing to substantial interface-induced recombination losses caused by defects at the interfaces and misaligned energy levels. The endeavor of this study is to investigate an efficient Sb2S3 solar cell structure via accurate analytical modeling. The proposed model considers different recombination mechanisms such as non-radiative recombination, Sb2S3/CdS interface recombination, Auger, SRH, tunneling-enhanced recombination, and their combined impact on solar cell performance. This model is verified against experimental work (Glass/ITO/CdS/Sb2S3/Au) where a good coincidence is achieved. Several parameters effects such as thickness, doping, electronic affinity, and bandgap are scrutinized. The effect of both bulk traps located in CdS and Sb2S3 on the electrical outputs of the solar cell is analyzed thoroughly. Besides, a deep insight into the effect of interfacial traps on solar cell figures of merits is gained through shedding light into their relation with carriers' minority lifetime, diffusion length, and surface recombination velocity. Our research findings illuminate that the primary contributors to Sb2S3 degradation are interfacial traps and series resistance. Furthermore, achieving optimal band alignment by fine-tuning the electron affinity of CdS to create a Spike-like conformation is crucial for enhancing the immunity of the device versus the interfacial traps. In our study, the optimized solar cell configuration (Glass/ITO/CdS/Sb2S3/Au) demonstrates remarkable performance, including a high short-circuit current (JSC) of 47.9 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.16 V, a fill factor (FF) of 54%, and a notable improvement in conversion efficiency by approximately 30% compared to conventional solar cells. Beyond its superior performance, the optimized Sb2S3 solar cell also exhibits enhanced reliability in mitigating interfacial traps at the CdS/Sb2S3 junction. This improved reliability can be attributed to our precise control of band alignment and the fine-tuning of influencing parameters.

Keywords: Analytical modeling; Device optimization; Recombination mechanisms; Sb2S3 solar cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Conventional structure of the device. (b) Device band diagram energy at equilibrium. Reproduce with permission from Ref.. (c) Absorption coefficients of different buffer materials. Reproduce with permission from Ref..
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of the I–V characteristics between the experimental data and the proposed model of CdS/Sb2S3 solar cells.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effect of doping, thickness, bandgap, and affinity of CdS layer (a) Nd = 1. × 1017&Wn variable, (b) Nd variable & Wn = 60 nm.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effect of doping concentration and thickness of CdS layer on the performance of Sb2S3 solar cell.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effect of Doping, thickness, bulk traps and bandgap of Sb2S3, (a) Affinity of CdS = 3.98 eV & band gap variable, (b) Affinity of CdS variable & band gap = 2.4 eV.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Effect of bandgap and electron affinity of CdS layer on the performance of Sb2S3 solar cell.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Effect of Doping, thickness of Sb2S3 layer, (a) Na = 4.7 × 1018 cm−3 & Wp variable, (b) Wp = 700 nm & Na variable.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The effect of Sb2S3 layer thickness and doping concentration on solar cell performance.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Effect of bandgap and bulk traps of Sb2S3 layer on the performance of the solar cell, (a) Ntp = 1015 cm−3 & Eg variable, (b) Eg = 1.7 eV & Ntp variable.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Effect of bandgap and bulk trap density of Sb2S3 layer on the performance of the solar cell.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Impact of (a) Interface recombination density and (b) surface recombination velocity on the photovoltaic performance of Sb2S3 Solar Cells, deciphering the crucial factors governing device efficiency.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Effect of Sb2S3 thickness and CdS/Sb2S3 interface defects density on the performance of the solar cell, (a) Nt = 1.9 × 1014 cm−2 & Wp variable, (b) Wp = 700 nm & Nt variable.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Variation of the solar cell performance as a function of both Sb2S3 thickness and CdS/Sb2S3 interface state density.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Exploring the dynamics of diffusion length and minority carrier variation in Sb2S3 Solar Cells in response to interface state density.
Figure 15
Figure 15
The Impact of (a) Series (RS) with RSH = 351.5 Ω and (b) Shunt Resistances (RSH) with RS = 18.4 Ω on Sb2S3 Solar Cell Performance.
Figure 16
Figure 16
Examining the impact of series (RS) and shunt resistances (RSH) on Sb2S3 solar cell performance.
Figure 17
Figure 17
J–V characteristics of the conventional and the optimized Sb2S3 solar cell.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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