Proceedings of September Meeting 2016 (NFM16)
Publication date: 14th June 2016
Over the last years, Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe, kesterite) thin film photovoltaic (PV) technologies, have demonstrated impressive progress. Nevertheless, and in order to keep this material at the forefront PV solutions free of critical-raw-materials, there is an urgent necessity to overcome the current efficiency limitations. Nowadays, the record conversion efficiency of kesterites (12.6%) barely exceeds half of the values reported for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and CdTe (higher than 22%). The main challenge for CZTSSe solar cells is the large Voc deficit, which is remarkably higher in comparison to well stablish solar cell technologies. Among the possible reasons for this large VOC deficit, the interfaces characteristics and their passivation is certainly one of the key aspects to be considered.In this work, and employing advanced nanoscale characterization, we will show the main characteristics of the kesterite surface and the grain boundaries, reporting the peculiarities of both interfaces. In particular, the surface composition seems to be very sensitive to any kind of post deposition treatment. On the other hand, two types of grain boundaries with contrasted structure and composition can be clearly identified and correlated with the morphology and thermal history of the absorbers, as will be presented. In view of the main properties of these interfaces, their engineering with chemical and thermal approaches will be proposed and reviewed. The passivation of the surface using advanced chemical etchings and selective chemical deposition of III family element oxides, by implementing simple controlled precipitation techniques, will be described. This solution based methodology shows to be extremely effective for engineering the interfaces properties, allowing the suppression of detrimental defects, and in consequence reducing the VOC deficit. We will also report how the combination of these solution based approaches with customized soft thermal treatments, can be useful for controlling grain boundaries passivation through a percolation and diffusion process. Finally, we will discuss to which extent these solution-based methodologies can contribute to reduce the restraints related to the voltage deficit in kesterite technologies and open new perspectives for further increase of the solar cell device efficiency.
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