Band Gap Tuning of Cu 2 ZnGeS x Se 4-x Absorbers for Thin-Film Solar Cells

Thomas Schnabel, Mahmoud Seboui and Erik Ahlswede
Additional contact information
Thomas Schnabel: Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg, Meitnerstraße 1, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany
Mahmoud Seboui: Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg, Meitnerstraße 1, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany
Erik Ahlswede: Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg, Meitnerstraße 1, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-9

Abstract: In this work, kesterite-type Cu 2 ZnGeS x Se 4-x absorbers were prepared by a two-step process for use in thin-film solar cells. Their high band gap makes them an interesting candidate as top cells in multijunction solar cells. However, an exact tuning of the band gap is essential. Therefore, for the first time, the [S]/([S] + [Se]) ratio was controlled via addition of a variable amount of GeS during the annealing step, which allowed precise control of the band gap between 1.5 and 1.7 eV. The changes in morphology and crystallinity of the absorber are discussed in detail. An additional focus was directed toward the parameters of the resulting solar cells. Although the efficiency declined as the [S]/([S] + [Se]) ratio increases, the open-circuit voltage was considerably increased.

Keywords: thin-film solar cells; kesterite; CZGS; band gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/11/1813/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/11/1813/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:11:p:1813-:d:118142

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().