Thin film solar cells of chemically deposited SnS of cubic and orthorhombic structures

Abstract Chemical bath deposition yields SnS thin films of cubic, SnS-CUB, or of orthorhombic, SnS-ORT, crystal structures. They have optical bandgaps ( E g ) of 1.7 eV and 1.1 eV, respectively. We present solar cells produced by depositing these SnS thin films on glass substrates coated with F-doped SnO 2 (SnO 2 :F) as transparent conducting oxide (TCO) and CdS film of E g , 2.6 eV as window layers. Chemical bath for depositing SnS-CUB thin films contained thioacetamide, while that for SnS-ORT contained thiosulfate as the source of sulfide. With SnS-CUB, TCO/CdS(80 nm)/SnS-CUB(400 nm)/C-Ag solar cells showed open circuit voltage ( V oc ) of 0.368 V, short circuit current density ( J sc ) of 2.7 mA/cm 2 , fill factor ( FF ) of 33% and conversion efficiency ( η ) of 0.33%. Solar cells with CdS (120 nm) SnS-ORT (1200 nm) thin films showed V oc , 0.336 V; J sc , 13 mA/cm 2 ; FF , 25% and η , 0.96%. For a solar cell with both SnS-CUB and SnS-ORT absorber films: TCO/CdS(80 nm)/SnS-CUB(200 nm)/SnS-ORT(300 nm)/C-Ag, V oc was 0.488 V; J sc , 6.96 mA/cm 2 , FF , 41% and η , 1.38%.