Whittles, TJ;
Veal, TD;
Savory, CN;
Welch, AW;
Lucas, FWDS;
Gibbon, JT;
Birkett, M;
... Dhanak, VR; + view all
(2017)
Core Levels, Band Alignments, and Valence-Band States in CuSbS2 for Solar Cell Applications.
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
, 9
(48)
pp. 41916-41926.
10.1021/acsami.7b14208.
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Abstract
The earth-abundant material CuSbS2 (CAS) has shown good optical properties as a photovoltaic solar absorber material, but has seen relatively poor solar cell performance. To investigate the reason for this anomaly, the core levels of the constituent elements, surface contaminants, ionization potential, and valence-band spectra are studied by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The ionization potential and electron affinity for this material (4.98 and 3.43 eV) are lower than those for other common absorbers, including CuInxGa(1–x)Se2 (CIGS). Experimentally corroborated density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the valence band maximum is raised by the lone pair electrons from the antimony cations contributing additional states when compared with indium or gallium cations in CIGS. The resulting conduction band misalignment with CdS is a reason for the poor performance of cells incorporating a CAS/CdS heterojunction, supporting the idea that using a cell design analogous to CIGS is unhelpful. These findings underline the critical importance of considering the electronic structure when selecting cell architectures that optimize open-circuit voltages and cell efficiencies.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Core Levels, Band Alignments, and Valence-Band States in CuSbS2 for Solar Cell Applications |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acsami.7b14208 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b14208 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Materials Science, Multidisciplinary, Science & Technology - Other Topics, Materials Science, CuSbS2, copper antimony sulfide, XPS, DFT, thin-film solar cells, band alignments, density of states, COPPER-ANTIMONY-SULFIDE, PHOTOVOLTAIC ABSORBER MATERIAL, THIN-FILMS, ELECTRONIC-STRUCTURE, CONFIGURATION ENERGIES, SEMICONDUCTORS, CHALCOSTIBITE, SURFACE, 2P, NANOCRYSTALS |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10048315 |
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