Identifying the relationships between subsurface absorber defects and the characteristics of kesterite solar cells

Understanding the defect characteristics that occur near the space-charge regions(SCRs)of kesterite(CZTSSe)solar cells is important because the recombination loss at the CZTSSe/CdS interface is considered the main cause of their low efficiency.CZTSSe surfaces with different elemental compositions were formed without polishing(C00)and with polishing for 20 s(C20)and 60 s(C60).For C60,a specific region near the SCR was excessively Cu-rich and Zn-poor compared to C00 and C20.Various charged defects formed where the elemental variation was large.As the main deep acceptor defect energy level(E_(a2))near the SCR increased,the efficiency,open-circuit voltage deficit,and current density degraded,and this phenomenon was especially rapid for large E_(a2) values.As the E_(a2) near the SCR became deep,the carrier diffusion length decreased more for the CZTSSe solar cells with a low carrier mobility than for the CuInGaSe_(2)(CIGSe)solar cells.The large amplitude of the electrostatic potential fluctuation in the CZTSSe solar cells induced a high carrier recombination and a short carrier lifetime.Consequently,the properties of the CZTSSe solar cells were more strongly degraded by defects with deep energy levels near the SCR than those of the CIGSe solar cells.

Nonlinear change of ion-induced secondary electron emission in theκ-Al_(2)O_(3) surface charging from first-principle modelling

Secondary electron emission(SEE)induced by the positive ion is an essential physical process to influence the dynamics of gas discharge which relies on the specific surface material.Surface charging has a significant impact on the material properties,thereby affecting the SEE in the plasma-surface interactions.However,it does not attract enough attention in the previous studies.In this paper,SEE dependent on the charged surface of specific materials is described with the computational method combining a density functional theory(DFT)model from the first-principle theory and the theory of Auger neutralization.The effect ofκ-Al2O3 surface charge,as an example,on the ion-induced secondary electron emission coefficient(SEEC)is investigated by analyzing the defect energy level and band structure on the charged surface.Simulation results indicate that,with the surface charge from negative to positive,the SEEC of a part of low ionization energy ions(such as Ei=12.6 eV)increases first and then decreases,exhibiting a nonlinear changing trend.This is quite different from the monotonic decreasing tendency observed in the previous model which simplifies the electronic structure.This irregular increase of the SEEC can be attributed to the lower escaped probability of orbital energy.The results further illustrate that the excessive charge could cause the bottom of the conduction band close to the valence band,thus leading to the decrease of the orbital energy occupied by the excited electrons.The nonlinear change of SEEC demonstrates a more realistic situation of how the electronic structure of material surface influences the SEE process.This work provides an accurate method of calculating SEEC from specific materials,which is urgent in widespread physical scenarios sensitive to surface materials,such as increasingly growing practical applications concerning plasma-surface interactions.

UV-Vis and Photoluminescent Spectra of TiO_2 Films

TiO 2 films have been deposited on glass substrates using DC reactive magnetron sputtering at different oxygen partial pressures from 0.10Pa to 0.65Pa.The transmittance (UV vis) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the films were recorded.The results of the UV vis spectra show that the deposition rate of the films decreased at oxygen partial pressure P(O 2)≥0.15Pa,the band gap increased from 3.48eV to 3.68eV for direct transition and from 3.27eV to 3.34eV for indirect transition with increasing the oxygen partial pressure.The PL spectra show convincingly that the transtion for films was indirect,and there were some oxygen defect energy levels at the band gap of the films.With increasing the O 2 partial pressure,the defect energy levels decreased.For the films sputtered at 0.35 and 0.65Pa there were two defect energy levels at 2.63eV and 2.41eV,corresponding to 0.72eV and 0.94eV below the conduction band for a band gap of 3.35eV,respectively.For the films sputtered at 0.10Pa and 0.15Pa,there was an energy band formed between 3.12eV and 2.06eV,corresponding to 0.23eV and 1.29eV below the conduction band.