CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films were prepared by thermal crystallization of co-sputtered Cu-In alloy precursors in S/Se atmosphere. In-depth compositional uniformity is an important prereq- uisite for obtaining device-qualit...CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films were prepared by thermal crystallization of co-sputtered Cu-In alloy precursors in S/Se atmosphere. In-depth compositional uniformity is an important prereq- uisite for obtaining device-quality CuIn（S,Se）2 absorber thin films. In order to figure out the influence of heat treatments on in-depth composition uniformity of CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films, two kinds of reaction temperature profiles were investigated. One process is ＂one step profile＂, referring to formation of CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films just at elevated temperature （e.g. 500 ℃）. The other is ＂two step profile＂, which allows for slow diffusion of S and Se elements into the alloy precursors at a low temperature before the formation and re-crystallization of CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films at higher temperature （e.g. first 250 ℃ then 500 ℃）. X-ray diffrac- tion studies reveal that there is a discrepancy in the shape of （112） peak. Samples annealed with ＂one step profile＂ have splits on （112） peaks, while samples annealed with ＂two step profile＂ have relatively symmetrical （112） peaks. Grazing incident X-ray diffraction and en- ergy dispersive spectrum measurements of samples successively etched in bromine methanol show that CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films have better in-depth composition uniformity after ＂two step profile＂ annealing. The reaction mechanism during the two thermal processing was also investigated by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectra.展开更多
The beneficial effect of the alkali metals such as Na and K on the Cu（In.Ga）Se2 （CIGS） and Cu2ZnSn（S,Se）4 （CZTSSe） solar cells has been extensively investigated in the past two decades, however, in most of the...The beneficial effect of the alkali metals such as Na and K on the Cu（In.Ga）Se2 （CIGS） and Cu2ZnSn（S,Se）4 （CZTSSe） solar cells has been extensively investigated in the past two decades, however, in most of the studies the alkali metals were treated as dopants. Several recent studies have showed that the alkali metals may not only act as dopants but also form secondary phases in the absorber layer or on the surfaces of the films. Using the first-principles calculations, we screened out the most probable secondary phases of Na and K in CIGS and CZTSSe, and studied their electronic structures and optical properties. We found that all these alkali chalcogenide compounds have larger band gaps and lower VBM levels than CIGS and CZTSSe, because the existence of strong p-d coupling in CIS and CZTS pushes the valence band maximum （VBM） level up and reduces the band-gaps, while there is no such p-d coupling in these alkali chalcogenides. This band alignment repels the photo-generated holes from the secondary phases and prevents the electron-hole recombination. Moreover, the study on the optical properties of the secondary phases showed that the absorption coefficients of these alkali chalcogenides are much lower than those of CIGS and CZTSSe in the energy range of 0-3.4eV, which means that the alkali chalcogenides may not influence the absorption of solar light. Since the alkali metal dopants can passivate the grain boundaries and increase the hole carrier concentration, and meanwhile their related secondary phases have innocuous effect on the optical absorption and band alignment, we can understand why the alkali metal dopants can improve the CIGS and CZTSSe solar cell performance.展开更多
In order to achieve low cost high efficiency thin film solar cells,a novel Semiconductor Photovoltaic (PV) active material CuIn 1-x Ga x Se 2 (CIGS) and thin film Electro Deposition (ED) technology is explored.Firstly...In order to achieve low cost high efficiency thin film solar cells,a novel Semiconductor Photovoltaic (PV) active material CuIn 1-x Ga x Se 2 (CIGS) and thin film Electro Deposition (ED) technology is explored.Firstly,the PV materials and technologies is investigated,then the detailed experimental processes of CIGS/Mo/glass structure by using the novel ED technology and the results are reported.These results shows that high quality CIGS polycrystalline thin films can be obtained by the ED method,in which the polycrystalline CIGS is definitely identified by the (112),(204,220) characteristic peaks of the tetragonal structure,the continuous CIGS thin film layers with particle average size of about 2μm of length and around 1 6μm of thickness.The thickness and solar grade quality of CIGS thin films can be produced with good repeatability.Discussion and analysis on the ED technique,CIGS energy band and sodium (Na) impurity properties,were also performed.The alloy CIGS exhibits not only increasing band gap with increasing x ,but also a change in material properties that is relevant to the device operation.The beneficial impurity Na originating from the low cost soda lime glass substrate becomes one prerequisite for high quality CIGS films.These novel material and technology are very useful for low cost high efficiency thin film solar cells and other devices.展开更多
The Cu-In-Zn-Se thin film was synthesized by changing the contribution of In in chalcopyrite CulnSe2 with Zn. The XRD spectra of the films showed the characteristic diffraction peaks in a good agreement with the quate...The Cu-In-Zn-Se thin film was synthesized by changing the contribution of In in chalcopyrite CulnSe2 with Zn. The XRD spectra of the films showed the characteristic diffraction peaks in a good agreement with the quaternary Cu-In-Zn-Se compound. They were in the polycrystalline nature without any post-thermal process, and the main orientation was found to be in the （112） direction with tetragonal crystalline structure. With increasing annealing temperature, the peak intensities in preferred orientation became more pronounced and grain sizes were in increasing behavior from 6.0 to 25.0 nm. The samples had almost the same atomic composition of Cu0.sIn0.sZnSe2. However, EDS results of the deposited films indicated that there was Se re-evaporation and/or segregation with the annealing in the structure of the film. According to the optical analysis, the transmittance values of the films increased with the annealing temperature. The absorption coefficient of the films was calculated as around 105 cm-1 in the visible region. Moreover, optical band gap values were found to be changing in between 2.12 and 2.28 eV depending on annealing temperature. The temperature-dependent dark- and photo-conductivity measurements were carried out to investigate the electrical characteristics of the films.展开更多
We investigate the impurity effects on surfaces of a thin film topological insulator, applied by an off-resonant circular polarized light. It is found that the off-resonant driving induces a quantized total Hall condu...We investigate the impurity effects on surfaces of a thin film topological insulator, applied by an off-resonant circular polarized light. It is found that the off-resonant driving induces a quantized total Hall conductivity, when the driving strength is larger than a critical value and the Fermi level lies in the band gap, indicating that our system is converted into the topological phase. We also find that with the increasing disorder strength, the Dirac masses of top and bottom surfaces are renormalized and then fixed to half of their initial values, respectively,which will shrink the widths of the half-integer plateau of anomalous Hall conductivities.展开更多
As a thin film solar cell absorber material, antimony selenide (Sb<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>) has become a potential candidate recently because of its unique optical and electrical properties a...As a thin film solar cell absorber material, antimony selenide (Sb<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>) has become a potential candidate recently because of its unique optical and electrical properties and easy fabrication method. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to determine the stoichiometry and composition of electroless Sb<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> thin films using depth profile studies. The surface layers were analyzed nearly stoichiometric. But the abundant amount of antimony makes the inner layer electrically more conductive.展开更多
The structural characteristics and optical and electrical properties of molecular-beam-epitaxy (MBE) grown ZnS0.8Se0.2 thin films on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass substrates were investigated in this work. The X-ray di...The structural characteristics and optical and electrical properties of molecular-beam-epitaxy (MBE) grown ZnS0.8Se0.2 thin films on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass substrates were investigated in this work. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that high quality polycrystalline ZnS0.8Se0.2 thin film grown at the optimized temperature had a preferred orientation along the (111) planes. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) cross-sectional micrograph of the sample showed a well defined columnar structure with lateral crystal dimension in the order of a few hundred angstroms. Ultraviolet(UV) photoresponsivity as high as 0.01 A/W had been demonstrated and for wavelengths longer than 450 nm, the response was down from the peak response by more than 3 orders of magnitude. The thin ZnS0.8Se0,2 photosensor layer, with a wide energy gap and anisotropic electrical property, makes a transmission UV liquid crystal light valve (LCLV) with high resolution feasible.展开更多
文摘CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films were prepared by thermal crystallization of co-sputtered Cu-In alloy precursors in S/Se atmosphere. In-depth compositional uniformity is an important prereq- uisite for obtaining device-quality CuIn（S,Se）2 absorber thin films. In order to figure out the influence of heat treatments on in-depth composition uniformity of CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films, two kinds of reaction temperature profiles were investigated. One process is ＂one step profile＂, referring to formation of CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films just at elevated temperature （e.g. 500 ℃）. The other is ＂two step profile＂, which allows for slow diffusion of S and Se elements into the alloy precursors at a low temperature before the formation and re-crystallization of CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films at higher temperature （e.g. first 250 ℃ then 500 ℃）. X-ray diffrac- tion studies reveal that there is a discrepancy in the shape of （112） peak. Samples annealed with ＂one step profile＂ have splits on （112） peaks, while samples annealed with ＂two step profile＂ have relatively symmetrical （112） peaks. Grazing incident X-ray diffraction and en- ergy dispersive spectrum measurements of samples successively etched in bromine methanol show that CuIn（S,Se）2 thin films have better in-depth composition uniformity after ＂two step profile＂ annealing. The reaction mechanism during the two thermal processing was also investigated by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectra.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)under grant nos.61574059 and 61722402the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFB0700700)+1 种基金Shu-Guang program(15SG20)CC of ECNU
文摘The beneficial effect of the alkali metals such as Na and K on the Cu（In.Ga）Se2 （CIGS） and Cu2ZnSn（S,Se）4 （CZTSSe） solar cells has been extensively investigated in the past two decades, however, in most of the studies the alkali metals were treated as dopants. Several recent studies have showed that the alkali metals may not only act as dopants but also form secondary phases in the absorber layer or on the surfaces of the films. Using the first-principles calculations, we screened out the most probable secondary phases of Na and K in CIGS and CZTSSe, and studied their electronic structures and optical properties. We found that all these alkali chalcogenide compounds have larger band gaps and lower VBM levels than CIGS and CZTSSe, because the existence of strong p-d coupling in CIS and CZTS pushes the valence band maximum （VBM） level up and reduces the band-gaps, while there is no such p-d coupling in these alkali chalcogenides. This band alignment repels the photo-generated holes from the secondary phases and prevents the electron-hole recombination. Moreover, the study on the optical properties of the secondary phases showed that the absorption coefficients of these alkali chalcogenides are much lower than those of CIGS and CZTSSe in the energy range of 0-3.4eV, which means that the alkali chalcogenides may not influence the absorption of solar light. Since the alkali metal dopants can passivate the grain boundaries and increase the hole carrier concentration, and meanwhile their related secondary phases have innocuous effect on the optical absorption and band alignment, we can understand why the alkali metal dopants can improve the CIGS and CZTSSe solar cell performance.
基金Project Supported by the Innovation and Technology Fund ( ITF ) of The Government of The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ( HK-SAR)China( Fund Grant Num ber:S/ P0 0 5 / 99)
文摘In order to achieve low cost high efficiency thin film solar cells,a novel Semiconductor Photovoltaic (PV) active material CuIn 1-x Ga x Se 2 (CIGS) and thin film Electro Deposition (ED) technology is explored.Firstly,the PV materials and technologies is investigated,then the detailed experimental processes of CIGS/Mo/glass structure by using the novel ED technology and the results are reported.These results shows that high quality CIGS polycrystalline thin films can be obtained by the ED method,in which the polycrystalline CIGS is definitely identified by the (112),(204,220) characteristic peaks of the tetragonal structure,the continuous CIGS thin film layers with particle average size of about 2μm of length and around 1 6μm of thickness.The thickness and solar grade quality of CIGS thin films can be produced with good repeatability.Discussion and analysis on the ED technique,CIGS energy band and sodium (Na) impurity properties,were also performed.The alloy CIGS exhibits not only increasing band gap with increasing x ,but also a change in material properties that is relevant to the device operation.The beneficial impurity Na originating from the low cost soda lime glass substrate becomes one prerequisite for high quality CIGS films.These novel material and technology are very useful for low cost high efficiency thin film solar cells and other devices.
文摘The Cu-In-Zn-Se thin film was synthesized by changing the contribution of In in chalcopyrite CulnSe2 with Zn. The XRD spectra of the films showed the characteristic diffraction peaks in a good agreement with the quaternary Cu-In-Zn-Se compound. They were in the polycrystalline nature without any post-thermal process, and the main orientation was found to be in the （112） direction with tetragonal crystalline structure. With increasing annealing temperature, the peak intensities in preferred orientation became more pronounced and grain sizes were in increasing behavior from 6.0 to 25.0 nm. The samples had almost the same atomic composition of Cu0.sIn0.sZnSe2. However, EDS results of the deposited films indicated that there was Se re-evaporation and/or segregation with the annealing in the structure of the film. According to the optical analysis, the transmittance values of the films increased with the annealing temperature. The absorption coefficient of the films was calculated as around 105 cm-1 in the visible region. Moreover, optical band gap values were found to be changing in between 2.12 and 2.28 eV depending on annealing temperature. The temperature-dependent dark- and photo-conductivity measurements were carried out to investigate the electrical characteristics of the films.
基金Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No 2017YFA0303203the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11574217 and 11474149
文摘We investigate the impurity effects on surfaces of a thin film topological insulator, applied by an off-resonant circular polarized light. It is found that the off-resonant driving induces a quantized total Hall conductivity, when the driving strength is larger than a critical value and the Fermi level lies in the band gap, indicating that our system is converted into the topological phase. We also find that with the increasing disorder strength, the Dirac masses of top and bottom surfaces are renormalized and then fixed to half of their initial values, respectively,which will shrink the widths of the half-integer plateau of anomalous Hall conductivities.
文摘As a thin film solar cell absorber material, antimony selenide (Sb<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>) has become a potential candidate recently because of its unique optical and electrical properties and easy fabrication method. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to determine the stoichiometry and composition of electroless Sb<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> thin films using depth profile studies. The surface layers were analyzed nearly stoichiometric. But the abundant amount of antimony makes the inner layer electrically more conductive.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 59910161981) and RGC grant from the Hong Kong Government Grant (No. NSFC/HKUST 35) China
文摘The structural characteristics and optical and electrical properties of molecular-beam-epitaxy (MBE) grown ZnS0.8Se0.2 thin films on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass substrates were investigated in this work. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that high quality polycrystalline ZnS0.8Se0.2 thin film grown at the optimized temperature had a preferred orientation along the (111) planes. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) cross-sectional micrograph of the sample showed a well defined columnar structure with lateral crystal dimension in the order of a few hundred angstroms. Ultraviolet(UV) photoresponsivity as high as 0.01 A/W had been demonstrated and for wavelengths longer than 450 nm, the response was down from the peak response by more than 3 orders of magnitude. The thin ZnS0.8Se0,2 photosensor layer, with a wide energy gap and anisotropic electrical property, makes a transmission UV liquid crystal light valve (LCLV) with high resolution feasible.
