Investigation of combinatorial coevaporated thin film Cu 2ZnSnS4. I. Temperature effect, crystalline phases, morphology, and photoluminescence

Update Item Information
Publication Type pre-print
School or College College of Engineering
Department Materials Science & Engineering
Creator Scarpulla, Michael
Other Author Du, Hui; Yan, Fei; Young, Matthew; To, Bobby; Jiang, Chun-Sheng; Dippo, Pat; Kuciauskas, Darius; Chi, Zhenhuan; Lund, Elizabeth A.; Hancock, Chris; Hlaing Oo, Win Maw; Teeter, Glenn
Title Investigation of combinatorial coevaporated thin film Cu 2ZnSnS4. I. Temperature effect, crystalline phases, morphology, and photoluminescence
Date 2014-01-01
Description Cu2ZnSnS4 is a promising low-cost, nontoxic, earth-abundant absorber material for thin-film solar cell applications. In this study, combinatorial coevaporation was used to synthesize individual thin-film samples spanning a wide range of compositions at low (325 C) and high (475 C) temperatures. Film composition, grain morphology, crystalline-phase and photo-excitation information have been characterized by x-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and photoluminescence imaging and mapping. Highly textured columnar grain morphology is observed for film compositions along the ZnS-Cu2ZnSnS4-Cu2SnS3 tie line in the quasi-ternary Cu2S-ZnS-SnS2 phase system, and this effect is attributed to structural similarity between the Cu2ZnSnS4, Cu2 SnS3, and ZnS crystalline phases. At 475 C growth temperature, Sn-S phases cannot condense because of their high vapor pressures. As a result, regions that received excess Sn flux during growth produced compositions falling along the ZnS-Cu2ZnSnS4-Cu2SnS3 tie line. Room-temperature photoluminescence imaging reveals a strong correlation for these samples between film composition and photoluminescence intensity, where film regions with Cu/Sn ratios greater than 2 show strong hotoluminescence intensity, in comparison with much weaker photoluminescence in regions that received excess Sn flux during growth or subsequent processing. The observed photoluminescence quenching in regions that received excess Sn flux is attributed to the effects of Sn-related native point defects in Cu2ZnSnS4 on non-radiative recombination processes. Implications for processing and performance of Cu2ZnSnS4 solar cells are discussed.
Type Text
Publisher American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Volume 115
Issue 17
First Page 173502-1
Last Page 173502-11
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Du, H., Yan, F., Young, M., To, B., Jiang, C.-S., Dippo, P., Kuciauskas, D., Chi, Z., Lund, E.A., Hancock, C., Hlaing Oo, W. M., Scarpulla, M. A., & Teeter, G. (2014). Investigation of combinatorial coevaporated thin film Cu 2ZnSnS4. I. Temperature effect, crystalline phases, morphology, and photoluminescence. Journal of Applied Physics, 115(17), 173502-1-173502-11.
Rights Management (c)American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Du, H., Yan, F., Young, M., To, B., Jiang, C.-S., Dippo, P., Kuciauskas, D., Chi, Z., Lund, E.A., Hancock, C., Hlaing Oo, W. M., Scarpulla, M. A., & Teeter, G., Journal of Applied Physics. 115(17), 2014 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4871664.
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 4,214,213 bytes
Identifier uspace,18799
ARK ark:/87278/s6f227s6
Setname ir_uspace
ID 712615
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6f227s6