Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SB4-O007 Invited Talk
DEPOSITION OF CuSbS2 BY SOLUTION METHODS FOR LARGE
AREA SOLAR CELLS APPLICATIONS
Obed Yamín Ramírez Esquivel 1 , Dalia Mazón Montijo 1 , Zeuz Montiel González 1 , Francisco
Servando Aguirre Tostado 1
1
Centro de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados, S.C., Unidad Monterrey, Mexico.
The development of semiconducting absorbing films for solar cells is focusing
on large area, low-cost, nontoxic, and highly-available materials. The CuSbS2
phase of the Cu-Sb-S system is promising due to its attractive optoelectronic
properties. Chalcostibite thin films have been deposited by several approaches,
however, their synthesis, as a predominant phase, is still challenging. In this
presentation, the comparison of two different solution based method for the
deposition of CuSbS2 thin films is examined. The first method consisted on the
alternate immersion of a glass substrate on cation (Cu+Sb) and anion (S)
precursors solutions with intermediate DIW rinsing. After a number of cycles a
CuSbS2 film is expected to grow. The second method consisted on an immersion
of Sb2S3 previously deposited by CBD into a Cu solution. The chemical
composition and crystalline structure of the films were analyzed before and
after postdeposition annealing. The incorporation of Cu onto CuSbS2 was
verified to occur through simultaneous dissolution and cationic exchange
reactions. The microstructural evolution of this ternary compound and its
impact on the electrical characteristics is discussed. The simplicity of this
synthesis process together with the demonstrated strong impact of the
annealing temperature, make this procedure a versatile and powerful tool to
prepared high quality Cu-Sb-S system films, as interesting candidates as
absorber layers in thin film solar cells and another several optoelectronic
devices.
Keywords: CuSbS2, chalcostibite, solar cells
Presenting authors email: servando.aguirre@cimav.edu.mx