Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Reaction Time and Film Thickness Effects on Phase Formation and Optical Properties of Solution Processed Cu2ZnSnS4 Thin Films

Reaction Time and Film Thickness Effects on Phase Formation and Optical Properties of Solution... Copper-zinc-tin-sulfide (Cu2ZnSnS4 or CZTS) is a promising p-type semiconductor material as absorber layer in thin film solar cells. The sulfides of copper and tin as well as zinc and sulfur powders were dissolved in hydrazine. The effect of chemical reaction between precursor species, at room temperature, was assessed for 6 to 22 h. For 22 h reaction time, the effect of spin coated film thickness on the resulting composition, after annealing under N2 flow at 500 °C for 1 h, was investigated. The morphology, composition, and optical properties of the annealed films were determined by means of x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and spectrophotometer studies. It was found that, for less than optimal reaction time of 22 h or film thickness below 1.2 µm, other ternary phases namely Cu4SnS4, Cu5Sn2S7, and ZnS co-exist in different proportions besides CZTS. Formation of phase-pure CZTS films also exhibited a tendency to minimize film cracking during annealing. Depending on the processing conditions, the band gap (E g) values were determined to be in the range of 1.55 to 1.97 eV. For phase-pure annealed CZTS film, an increase in the E g value may be attributed to quantum confinement effect due to small crystallite size. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance Springer Journals

Reaction Time and Film Thickness Effects on Phase Formation and Optical Properties of Solution Processed Cu2ZnSnS4 Thin Films

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/reaction-time-and-film-thickness-effects-on-phase-formation-and-5ekAw4ioIL

References (34)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by ASM International
Subject
Material Science; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Tribology, Corrosion and Coatings; Quality Control, Reliability, Safety and Risk; Engineering Design
ISSN
1059-9495
eISSN
1544-1024
DOI
10.1007/s11665-015-1874-6
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Copper-zinc-tin-sulfide (Cu2ZnSnS4 or CZTS) is a promising p-type semiconductor material as absorber layer in thin film solar cells. The sulfides of copper and tin as well as zinc and sulfur powders were dissolved in hydrazine. The effect of chemical reaction between precursor species, at room temperature, was assessed for 6 to 22 h. For 22 h reaction time, the effect of spin coated film thickness on the resulting composition, after annealing under N2 flow at 500 °C for 1 h, was investigated. The morphology, composition, and optical properties of the annealed films were determined by means of x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and spectrophotometer studies. It was found that, for less than optimal reaction time of 22 h or film thickness below 1.2 µm, other ternary phases namely Cu4SnS4, Cu5Sn2S7, and ZnS co-exist in different proportions besides CZTS. Formation of phase-pure CZTS films also exhibited a tendency to minimize film cracking during annealing. Depending on the processing conditions, the band gap (E g) values were determined to be in the range of 1.55 to 1.97 eV. For phase-pure annealed CZTS film, an increase in the E g value may be attributed to quantum confinement effect due to small crystallite size.

Journal

Journal of Materials Engineering and PerformanceSpringer Journals

Published: Jan 4, 2016

There are no references for this article.