Dresden 2014 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten
DS 37: Focus Session: Sustainable Photovoltaics with Earth Abundant Materials I
DS 37.6: Hauptvortrag
Donnerstag, 3. April 2014, 12:15–12:45, CHE 91
Potential and challenges of kesterite-type materials for thin film solar cells — •Thomas Unold — Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie
Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film semiconductors have attracted much interest recently because of their potential application as absorber layers in thin-film solar cells. These kesterite-type materials can be derived from the chalcopyrite semiconductor CuInSe2 by replacing the relatively rare element indium alternatingly with the more abundant elements tin and zinc, which would allow sustainable deployment of this technology on the terawatt scale. The close relation of their crystal structures raises the hope that also for the kesterite materials the excellent optoelectronic properties of their chalcopyrite cousins can be achieved. Although conversion efficiencies of 12% have now been demonstrated for kesterite-type solar cells, this value is still substantially lower than the record efficiencies above 20% for Cu(In,Ga)Se2. One major challenge with kesterite materials lies in the control over defects and secondary phases imposed by the quartenary nature of this semiconductor. Interestingly, solution-based synthesis methods so far have yielded electronically superior material compared to vacuum-based deposition methods, in contrast to previous experience with the synthesis of almost any other inorganic semiconductor.