THE INVESTIGATION OF ALTERNATIVE METALS OF Au, Ag, Al AND Cu FOR BACK CONTACT USED IN FABRICATED ZnS/SnS HETEROJUNCTION FOR SOLAR CELL APPLICATION

Meriem Messaoudi, Ouafia Belgherbi, Samah Boudour, Leila Lamiri, Lynda Beddek, Khaoula Zabar, Hamza Khemliche, Mohammad Alam Saeed and Mohammed Salah Aida
Additional contact information
Meriem Messaoudi: Research Center in Industrial Technologies CRTI, P. O. Box 64, Cheraga 16014, Algiers, Algeria
Ouafia Belgherbi: Research Center in Industrial Technologies CRTI, P. O. Box 64, Cheraga 16014, Algiers, Algeria
Samah Boudour: Research Center in Industrial Technologies CRTI, P. O. Box 64, Cheraga 16014, Algiers, Algeria
Leila Lamiri: Research Center in Industrial Technologies CRTI, P. O. Box 64, Cheraga 16014, Algiers, Algeria
Lynda Beddek: ��Materials Physics and Chemistry Laboratory (LPCM), Mouloud Mammeri University, Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria
Khaoula Zabar: ��Departments of Physics, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Ferhat Abbas University, 19137 Setif, Algeria
Hamza Khemliche: Research Center in Industrial Technologies CRTI, P. O. Box 64, Cheraga 16014, Algiers, Algeria
Mohammad Alam Saeed: �Departments of Physics, Division of Science and Technology, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan
Mohammed Salah Aida: �Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Surface Review and Letters (SRL), 2025, vol. 32, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: In this research, we examined metallic back contacts effects on the electrical characteristics of heterojunctions in the context of solar cells. Gold, silver, aluminum and copper were selected as substitutes for the conventional molybdenum. Heterojunctions with SnS and ZnS as an absorber and buffer layers, respectively, were fabricated using spray pyrolysis. The characterization revealed the formation of SnS in an orthorhombic structure and ZnS in a cubic structure, displaying preferential orientations along (120) and (222) planes, respectively. These structures exhibited excellent crystallinity, evidenced by large crystallite sizes and phase purity, as confirmed by morphological study. Optical measurements indicated the band gap for SnS and ZnS as 1.5 and 3.1eV, respectively. Additionally, through Hall Effect and Mott–Schottky analysis, it was observed that the SnS and ZnS films displayed p-type and n-type conductivity, with corresponding carrier concentrations of 1.87×1018 and 1.41×1019cm−3, respectively. The electrical characteristics of the n-ZnS/p-SnS heterojunction were explored through forward I–V analysis. Photocurrent measurements revealed that the constructed structures demonstrated rectifying behavior. The resistance series and ideality factor values obtained were observed to be relatively high. The unusual ideality factor can be attributed to the formation of Schottky contact between contacts (Ag, Al, Cu) and SnS film, possibly due to defects at the interface state of ZnS/SnS. This study’s findings indicate that, among the tested FTO/ZnS/SnS heterojunction structures, with Au metal contact exhibited superior performance. It suggests that Au could serve as a viable alternative to Mo as the back metal contact for SnS-based solar cells.

Keywords: ZnS/SnS; back contact; heterojunction; Mo; Schottky contact; band offset (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218625X24501348
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:wsi:srlxxx:v:32:y:2025:i:10:n:s0218625x24501348

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0218625X24501348

Access Statistics for this article

Surface Review and Letters (SRL) is currently edited by S Y Tong

More articles in Surface Review and Letters (SRL) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().