Issue 24, 2016

Charge carrier loss mechanisms in CuInS2/ZnO nanocrystal solar cells

Abstract

Heterojunction solar cells based on colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) have shown remarkable improvements in performance in the last decade, but this progress is limited to merely two materials, PbS and PbSe. However, solar cells based on other material systems such as copper-based compounds show lower power conversion efficiencies and much less effort has been made to develop a better understanding of factors limiting their performance. Here, we study charge carrier loss mechanisms in solution-processed CuInS2/ZnO NC solar cells by combining steady-state measurements with transient photocurrent and photovoltage measurements. We demonstrate the presence of an extraction barrier at the CuInS2/ZnO interface, which can be reduced upon illumination with UV light. However, trap-assisted recombination in the CuInS2 layer is shown to be the dominant decay process in these devices.

Graphical abstract: Charge carrier loss mechanisms in CuInS2/ZnO nanocrystal solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Feb 2016
Accepted
13 May 2016
First published
20 May 2016
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016,18, 16258-16265

Charge carrier loss mechanisms in CuInS2/ZnO nanocrystal solar cells

D. Scheunemann, S. Wilken, J. Parisi and H. Borchert, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 16258 DOI: 10.1039/C6CP01015F

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