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Effect of ambient gas on grain growth of CZTS layer: study on device efficiency

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Abstract

Higher grain size is one of the important requirements for any absorber material to achieve a high efficiency solar cell. Among various other parameters, thermal conductivity of the ambient gas used during annealing is also expected to change the grain size of the thin film material. In this work, a ~ 1 micron thick CZTS layer was prepared on Mo coated soda lime glass substrate using co-sputtering of precursor followed by sulfurization (annealing in sulphur vapour and Argon/Nitrogen gas). Annealing environment was changed by varying the gas (N2/Ar) during the sulfurization process to study the effect of thermal conductivity of gas on CZTS layer and cell performance. Cells prepared using nitrogen gas sulfurization is found to be more efficient as compared to argon gas sulfurization. This has been discussed as a function of higher thermal conductivity of sulfurizing gas which led to the larger grain size. Reduction in grain boundaries due to larger grain size help in more charge collection and hence improving device properties.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research work was partially supported by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), India through grant no. EMR/2016/00657. Authors would like to thank Dr. Jinto Thomas from Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), India, for Raman measurements, Mr. Vyom Desai from IPR, India for XRD measurements and Ms. Rinkal Kanani from IPR, India for preparation of cross section samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Plasma Research, Near Indira Bridge, Bhat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 382428, India

    Sagar Agrawal, C. Balasubramanian & Subroto Mukherjee

  2. Homi Bhabha National Institute, Training School Complex, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400094, India

    Sagar Agrawal, C. Balasubramanian & Subroto Mukherjee

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  1. Sagar Agrawal
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  2. C. Balasubramanian
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  3. Subroto Mukherjee
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by SA. The first draft of the manuscript was written by SA and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sagar Agrawal.

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Agrawal, S., Balasubramanian, C. & Mukherjee, S. Effect of ambient gas on grain growth of CZTS layer: study on device efficiency. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1387 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-10776-1

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