Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol.174, 65-76, 2018
Nanometre-scale optical property fluctuations in Cu2ZnSnS4 revealed by low temperature cathodoluminescence
Band tailing is a major contributing factor to the large open circuit voltage (V-oc) deficit that is currently limiting Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) photovoltaic devices. It occurs in highly doped, highly compensated semiconductors and gives rise to a non-uniform electronic band structure. Here we report spatially resolved fluctuations in CZTS optical properties using low temperature cathodoluminescence (CL) in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Principal component analysis reveals three CL peaks whose relative intensity vary across domains similar to 100 nm in size. It is not known whether the non-uniform optical properties are due to changes in composition or due to structural order-disorder at constant composition. Measurement of composition with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis in an SEM and ordering with Micro-Raman mapping revealed CZTS to be uniform within the spatial resolution (estimated at similar to 0.4 mu m and 1.1 mu m respectively) and sensitivity of the two techniques. The CL results are consistent with the presence of band tailing in CZTS.