| Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2014) | |
| Energy Harvesting & Storage | Monday Sessions |
| Session EH-MoM |
| Session: | Nano-based Approaches for Photovoltaics |
| Presenter: | F.Servando Aguirre-Tostado, CIMAV, Mexico |
| Authors: | F.S. Aguirre-Tostado, CIMAV, Mexico R. Garza-Hernández, CIMAV, Mexico |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The employment of solution based methods for the deposition of semiconductor materials for solar cells applications comes with promise of enabling large area applications at the same time of driving down costs. The optimization of thin film semiconductors such as CuZnSnS requires the understanding of the structure and chemical reactions taking place during deposition of thin films and post-deposition thermal treatments. In this respect, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is uniquely suited for tracking down chemical reactions occurring at the surface and interface of nanometric layers. The chemical analysis and thermal stability for surface and interface reactions of binary chalcogenide semiconductors is presented. CuS, ZnS, and SnS2 thin films were deposited on top of CdS by the successive ionic layer absorption and reaction method (SILAR) in a glove-box attached to the XPS load-lock chamber for in-situ analyses. Step by step XPS analysis of the SILAR process reveals an incubation period that depends on temperature and ion concentrations. Multilayer structure stability is discussed in terms of chemical reactivity and diffusion of cations. Finally, a demonstration of how the obtained results can help to engineer a more stable structures is presented.