Enhanced solar cell efficiency: copper zinc tin sulfide absorber thickness and defect density analysis

• K. C. Devendra, 
• Deb Kumar Shah, 
• Subhash Kumar, 
• Nawraj Bhattarai, 
• Dipak Raj Adhikari, 
• Khim B. Khattri, 
• M. Shaheer Akhtar, 
• Ahmad Umar, 
• Ahmed A. Ibrahim, 
• Mohsen A. M. Alhamami, 
• Sotirios Baskoutas & 
• O.-Bong Yang 

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics volume 34, Article number: 1699 (2023) 

Cite this article

Devendra, K.C., Shah, D.K., Kumar, S. et al. Enhanced solar cell efficiency: copper zinc tin sulfide absorber thickness and defect density analysis. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1699 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11125-y

Abstract

Copper zinc tin sulfide solar cell (CZTS), Cu2ZnSnS4-based solar cells have shown promising conversion efficiency because of their ease of variation in configurations. In this work, the architecture of a ZnO–Al/i–ZnO/n–CdS/CZTS/Mo solar cell was optimized by using Silvaco Atlas simulation software. In this simulation study, the thickness and defect density of the CZTS layer has been varied to achieve the highest efficiency of 26.58%, with Isc = 36.64 A and Voc = 0.909 V at a defect density of 1.8 × 1012 cm−3. Increase in the layer thickness of CZTS improves the photon absorption and cell efficiency. This study has evidenced the impact of defect density on the absorber layer, including photo-generation rate, recombination rate, and solar cell efficiency. By optimizing the device parameters, it has achieved a fill factor of 79.74% under AM 1.5 illumination, demonstrating the potential for low-cost, highly efficient CZTS solar cells.