[18p-133-1~10] Current status and future prospect of chalcogenide-based thin film solar cells technology

[18p-133-2] Commemorative development story of CZTS-based thin film solar cells

〇Hironori Katagiri¹ (1.Nagaoka KOSEN)

Keywords:CZTS, Thin Film Solar Cells, Earth-Abundant

Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) is one of the promising materials for low cost thin film solar cells, because of suitable band gap energy around 1.5 eV, and the large absorption coefficient over 10⁴ cm^-1. CZTS is fabricated by substituting the half of the rare metal indium with zinc and the other half with tin in CuInS₂ system. All constituents of this film are abundant on the crust of the earth, and they are not toxic. In 1996, we reported a fabrication process of CZTS films by sulfurization of E-B evaporated precursors. We formed a new type of thin film solar cells having the structure of SLG/Mo/CZTS/ CdS/ZnO:Al/Al and achieved the conversion efficiency of 0.66 % for the first time. Conversion efficiency was gradually increased by the modification of the fabrication process. In this presentation, we will survey the development of CZTS-based thin film solar cells achieved in our laboratory and show the latest related topics.