Characterization of basic physical properties of Sb<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> and its relevance for photovoltaics

doi:10.1007/s12200-017-0702-z

Front. Optoelectron.

2017, Vol. 10

Issue (1) : 18-30 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-017-0702-z

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Characterization of basic physical properties of Sb₂Se₃ and its relevance for photovoltaics

Chao CHEN¹, David C. BOBELA², Ye YANG², Shuaicheng LU¹, Kai ZENG¹, Cong GE¹, Bo YANG¹, Liang GAO¹, Yang ZHAO¹, Matthew C. BEARD², Jiang TANG¹(

)

¹. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO), Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
². Chemistry and Nanoscience Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, 80401, USA

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Abstract

Antimony selenide (Sb₂Se₃) is a promising absorber material for thin film photovoltaics because of its attractive material, optical and electrical properties. In recent years, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of Sb₂Se₃ thin film solar cells has gradually enhanced to 5.6%. In this article, we systematically studied the basic physical properties of Sb₂Se₃ such as dielectric constant, anisotropic mobility, carrier lifetime, diffusion length, defect depth, defect density and optical band tail states. We believe such a comprehensive characterization of the basic physical properties of Sb₂Se₃ lays a solid foundation for further optimization of solar device performance.

Keywords antimony selenide (Sb₂Se₃) mobility lifetime diffusion length defects

Corresponding Author(s): Jiang TANG

Just Accepted Date: 23 January 2017 Online First Date: 01 March 2017 Issue Date: 17 March 2017

Cite this article:

Chao CHEN,David C. BOBELA,Ye YANG, et al. Characterization of basic physical properties of Sb₂Se₃ and its relevance for photovoltaics[J]. Front. Optoelectron., 2017, 10(1): 18-30.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/10.1007/s12200-017-0702-z
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/Y2017/V10/I1/18

Fig.1 Frequency dependent dielectric constant of Sb₂Se₃. The inset is the ilustration of the parallel plate capacitor with the interspcaing between Au electrodes as 1 mm

Fig.2 Estimation of anisotropic carrier mobilities. (a) X-ray diffraction patterns of [020]-, [120]- and [221]-Sb₂Se₃ films and (b−d) the corresponding cross-sectional SEM image. The transient current in TOF measurement of (e) [020]-Sb₂Se₃, (f) [120]-Sb₂Se₃ and (g) [221]-Sb₂Se₃ films after photoexcitation at time t = 0 in a bilogarithmic plot; the transit time τ _t is identified as the crossover point of two blue lines. The atomic configuration of (h) (020), (i) (120) and (j) (221) crystal plane of Sb₂Se₃. The red and green dash arrows represent the carrier hopping from one ribbon to the adjacent ones along a- and b-directions, respectively; the azure solid arrows stand for carrier transporting within the (Sb₄Se₆)_n ribbons

Fig.3 (a) TA spectrum at various time delays after photoexcitation; (b) fs-TA kinetics averaged between 900 and 950 nm; (c) ns-TA edge kinetics averaged between 900 and 950 nm and the corresponding single exponential fitting (green lines) for Sb₂Se₃ film

Fig.4 Estimation of diffusion length by the bias dependent IQE method. (a) −ln(1−IQE) against depletion width (x _d). The diffusion length and absorption coefficient were extracted by the intercept and slope of the linear fitting. (b) Comparison between the absorption coefficient derived from IQE+ CV (red dots line) and the measured value from transmittance (black line)

Fig.5 Defect characterization on [221] oriented Sb₂Se₃ by temperature dependent conductivity measurement. (a) Logarithmic dark conductivity versus 1000/T in the temperature range of 85 to 420 K; (b) ln(σ T ^1/2) versus T ^?−1/4 in the temperature range of 85 to 160 K

Fig.6 Defect distribution in Sb₂Se₃ film. (a) Density of defect states of Sb₂Se₃ from admittance spectra. The defect peak at (0.095±0.008) eV could be perfectly fitted by Gaussian function as blue dash line; (b) Gaussian defect distribution in the band gap

Fig.7 Absorption coefficient (α) versus photon energy (h n). The Absorption coefficient of crystal and amorphous Sb₂Se₃ films were obtain from PDS spectrum

Tab.1 Summary of physical parameters of Sb₂Se₃ reported in this paper

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