Effect of Zn(O,S) Buffer Layer on Cu2ZnSnS4 Solar Cell Performance from Numerical Simulation

Hong  Zhang; Shuying  Cheng; Jinling  Yu; Yunfeng  Lai; Haifang  Zhou; Qiao  Zheng; Hongjie  Jia

doi:10.6180/jase.2017.20.1.05

Effect of Zn(O,S) Buffer Layer on Cu2ZnSnS4 Solar Cell Performance from Numerical Simulation

Physics

Hong Zhang ^1,2, Shuying Cheng This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.^1,2, Jinling Yu^1,2, Yunfeng Lai^1,2, Haifang Zhou^1,2, Qiao Zheng^1,2 and Hongjie Jia^1,2

¹College of Physics and Information Engineering, and Institute of Micro-Nano Devices and Solar Cells, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350108, P.R. China
²Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Photovolatic Science and Engineering, Changzhou, 213164, P.R. China

Received: April 20, 2016
Accepted: September 5, 2016
Publication Date: March 1, 2017

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.2017.20.1.05

ABSTRACT

Zn(O,S) is a promising alternative buffer layer to CdS in Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) based solar cell due to its large bandgap and nontoxic elements. In this study the performance of CZTS/Zn(O,S)/ Al:ZnO solar cell was numerically simulated by Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS). And the sulfur content of Zn(O,S) buffer layer was varied to investigate how the chemical composition of Zn(O,S) influences the conduction band offsets at absorber/buffer and buffer/window interfaces and then affects the cell performance. It was found that the conduction-band offset (CBO) of the CZTS/Zn(O,S) heterojunction played a significant role in the performance of the solar cell. The electron affinity and bandgap of Zn(O,S) are controlled by the sulfur-to-oxygen ratios, and the resulting offset span is from +0.7 eV in the “spike” direction to -0.1 eV in the “cliff” direction if the electron affinity of CZTS is considered as 4.5 eV. When S/(S+O) atomic ratio of Zn(O,S) is about 0.3, the cell has a high conversion efficiency of 14.90% with CBO of 0.2 eV. The simulation results will provide some important guidelines for fabricating high efficient CZTS solar cells.

Keywords: CZTS, Zn(O,S), SCAPS

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