Abstract
Tin sulfide is an attractive absorber material for low-cost thin-film solar cells. Despite the ideal physical properties of bulk SnS, the photovoltaic conversion efficiencies achieved in devices to date have been no greater than 2%. Assessment of the valence band energy of the stable orthorhombic phase of SnS reveals a low ionisation potential (4.7 eV) in comparison to typical absorber materials (CdTe, CuInSe2, and Cu2ZnSnS4). A band mis-alignment is therefore predicted with commonly used back contact and buffer layers. Alternative configurations are proposed that should improve device performance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 132111 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
| Volume | 102 |
| Issue number | 13 |
| Early online date | 4 Apr 2013 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2013 |
Keywords
- buffer layers
- ionisation potential
- valence bands
- tin compounds
- thin film devices
- solar cells
- semiconductor thin films
- IV-VI semiconductors
Access to Document
- ApplPhysLett 102 132111
Copyright 2013 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Burton, LA & Walsh, A 2013, 'Band alignment in SnS thin-film solar cells: Possible origin of the low conversion efficiency' Applied Physics Letters, vol 102, no. 13, 132111 and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/doi/10.1063/1.4801313