Narayana, T. and Subbaiah, Y. P. Venkata and Prathap, P. and Reddy, Y. B. K. and Reddy, K. T. Ramakrishna (2013) Influence of sulfurization temperature on physical properties of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 5 (3). 031606-1-031606-7. ISSN 1941-7012

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Abstract

Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (Cu2ZnSnS4 or CZTS) is gaining much attention recently as a potential light absorber alternative to CuInGaSe2 due to its suitable energy band gap similar to 1.5 eV with p-type conductivity, high optical absorption coefficient of similar to 10(5) cm(-1). Moreover, all its constituents are abundant in the crust of the earth and environmentally harmless. In the present investigation, CZTS thin films were prepared using simple two step process of, sulfurization of sequentially sputtered stack, Glass/Zn/Sn/Cu (hereafter CTZ) metallic precursors on soda lime glass substrate held at temperature 200 degrees C. The sputter power was optimized individually for Zn, Sn, and Cu layers. The sputtered CTZ precursors were annealed at different temperatures in the range, 300-550 degrees C with an increment of 50 degrees C for 2 h in the ambience of vaporized elemental sulfur. The XRD pattern revealed that the films sulfurized in the temperature range 300-400 degrees C showed various spurious (binary and ternary) phases and the films sulfurized at 450 degrees C exhibited a clear phase corresponding to CZTS that becomes predominant at 500 degrees C. The optimized (500 degrees C) CZTS thin films showed kesterite structure with (112) preferred orientation. The sharp Raman shift centered at 336 cm(-1) confirms the single phase CZTS for the precursors sulfurized at 500 degrees C. From the transmittance measurements, the energy gap is found to be 1.62 eV for optimized CZTS films. The optical profilometer studies indicated an increase in the surface roughness with the sulfurization temperature. AFM measurements revealed compact morphology with pyramidal texture.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to M/s American Institute of Physics.
Subjects:	Energy Fuels
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Users 27 not found.
Date Deposited:	22 Jul 2020 09:42
Last Modified:	22 Jul 2020 09:42
URI:	http://npl.csircentral.net/id/eprint/3163

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