With the growing interest in carbon neutrality and the worrying situation of extreme temperatures and natural disasters caused by global warming, solar cells will play an important role in the global transition to renewable energy. Now, a research group has paved the way for obtaining high open-circuit voltages in tin sulfide (SnS) solar cells, realizing their latent potential as Broadband addition to the SnS interface opens the door to highly efficient thin-film solar cells, thin solar films.
Thin film cells, which include semiconductors with high thermal conductivity, require less equipment, making them lighter and cheaper to produce.
SnS is one of the most environmentally friendly films because it does not contain any unusual or toxic substances. But in recent years, researchers have begun to ask this question since, despite more than 20 years of research on them, their conversion efficiency has reached 5% only because of the small opening voltage.
The team, led by Assistant Professor Issei Suzuki of the Multidisciplinary Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, successfully demonstrated the SnS interface exhibits broadband curvature, which is necessary to achieve high open circuit voltage.
“We use photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate the electronic structure of the interface where molybdenum oxide is deposited on a SnS single crystal,” Suzuki said. “We have confirmed that the interface condition has reached the open circuit voltage.”
This isn’t Suzuki’s first foray into SnS thin-film solar cells, either. As of December 2021, he is leading another group that produced the world’s first SnS comedy. This made it possible to create a homojunction in a narrow format.
For the current research, the team also proposed a method for creating a good interface for thin SnS solar cells, including reducing the sulfur deficiency in the SnS thin film and using a homojunction method in their design.
Suzuki added, “In the near future, we hope to develop homojunction solar cells with high conversion efficiency.”
