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In this work, we report on the fabrication of ZnO thin films doped with Ge via the ALD method. With an optimized amount of Ge doping, there was an improvement in the conductivity of the films owing to an increase in the carrier concentration. The optical properties of the films doped with Ge show improved transmittance and reduced reflectance, making them more attractive for opto-electronic applications. The band gap of the films exhibits a blue shift with Ge doping due to the Burstein–Moss effect. The variations in the band gap and the work function of ZnO depend strongly on the carrier density of the films. From the surface studies carried out using XPS, we could confirm that Ge replaces some of the Zn in the wurtzite structure. In the films containing Ge, the concentration of oxygen vacancies is also high, which is somehow related to the poor electrical properties of the films at higher Ge concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3)-based perovskite solar cells have gained immense popularity over the last few years within the perovskite research community due to their incredible opto-electronic properties and the record power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) achieved by the solar cells. However, FAPbI3 is vulnerable to phase transitions even at room temperature, which cause structural instability and eventual device failure during operation. We performed post-treatment of the FAPbI3 surface with octyl ammonium iodide (OAI) in order to stabilize the active phase and preserve the crystal structure of FAPbI3. The formation of a 2D perovskite at the interface depends on the stoichiometry of the precursor. By optimizing the precursor stoichiometry and the concentration of OAI, we observe a synergistic effect, which results in improved power conversion efficiencies, reaching the best values of 22% on a glass substrate. Using physical and detailed optical analysis, we verify the presence of the 2D layer on the top of the 3D surface of the perovskite film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity involved in obtaining pure Kesterite Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) thin film primarily arises due to its narrow region of stability, leading to the presence of unavoidable binary selenides of the constituent metals. This study offers an insight on the formation of Cu selenides when the amount of Cu is varied in the precursor from Cu poor to Cu rich. The amount of Cu selenides was found to decrease when the composition of CZTSe absorber approached Cu rich conditions but functional devices were not obtained. Detailed characterizations also showed that the Cu and Sn binary phases were present at the backside interface of CZTSe solar cells. However with an increase in the selenization temperature it was found that the amount of Cu selenides and other secondary phases could be drastically minimized or even eliminated leading to high efficiency devices.

In this work, the addition of molar concentrations of Na+ and/or K+ in the form of fluorides during the processing of Cu2ZnSnSe4 absorber layers was investigated. The beneficial effect of alkali salts on the performance of CZTSe solar cells has been demonstrated through physical and electrical characterization. A maximum power conversion efficiency of 8.3% has been obtained through controlled addition of Na+ and K+ in the CZTSe absorber as opposed to 6.7% from uncontrolled addition of both. The open circuit voltage in both cases was very much the same but the devices with controlled addition showed lower p-type doping, a low density of charged defects and less band tailing compared to the rest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the use of ternary and quaternary chalcogenide compounds based on Cu, Zn, Sn and Si for use as high band gap absorber layers in thin film photovoltaics. We have investigated the fabrication of Cu2Zn(Sn,Si)Se4, Cu2Si(S,Se)3 and Cu8Si(S,Se)6 thin film layers. Whereas, Cu2Zn(Sn,Si)Se4 and Cu2Si(S,Se)3 appeared to be difficult to fabricate, because the Si did not intermix well with the rest of the elements at the typical process temperatures used for glass substrates, Cu2ZnSiSe4 and Cu8Si(S,Se)6 could be formed. The fabricated layers were polycrystalline with a typical thickness of about 1 μm. We also fabricated solar cells with the different absorber materials, using a standard Mo back contact and CdS/ZnO buffer layer combination, but despite very bright photoluminescence response of the Cu8SiS6 and Cu8SiSe6 layers at an energy of about 1.84 and 1.3 eV respectively, the measured efficiencies remained below 0.1% due to particularly low photocurrents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]