Transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority-carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films: Advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material
Materials research with a focus on enhancing the minority-carrier lifetime of the light-absorbing semiconductor is key to advancing solar energy technology for both early stage and mature material platforms alike. Tin sulfide (SnS) is an absorber material with several clear advantages for manufactur...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Institute of Physics (AIP)
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102134 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6715-5195 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8345-4937 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0737-6786 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7804-5418 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3116-6719 |
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| author | Sher, Meng-Ju Yang, Chuanxi Hartman, Katy Lindenberg, Aaron M. Gordon, Roy G. Jaramillo, Rafael Ofori-Okai, Benjamin Kwasi Steinmann, Vera Nelson, Keith Adam Buonassisi, Tonio |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry Sher, Meng-Ju Yang, Chuanxi Hartman, Katy Lindenberg, Aaron M. Gordon, Roy G. Jaramillo, Rafael Ofori-Okai, Benjamin Kwasi Steinmann, Vera Nelson, Keith Adam Buonassisi, Tonio |
| author_sort | Sher, Meng-Ju |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Materials research with a focus on enhancing the minority-carrier lifetime of the light-absorbing semiconductor is key to advancing solar energy technology for both early stage and mature material platforms alike. Tin sulfide (SnS) is an absorber material with several clear advantages for manufacturing and deployment, but the record power conversion efficiency remains below 5%. We report measurements of bulk and interface minority-carrier recombination rates in SnSthin films using optical-pump, terahertz-probe transient photoconductivity (TPC) measurements. Post-growth thermal annealing in H[subscript 2]S gas increases the minority-carrier lifetime, and oxidation of the surface reduces the surface recombination velocity. However, the minority-carrier lifetime remains below 100 ps for all tested combinations of growth technique and post-growth processing. Significant improvement in SnSsolar cell performance will hinge on finding and mitigating as-yet-unknown recombination-active defects. We describe in detail our methodology for TPC experiments, and we share our data analysis routines in the form freely available software. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:02:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/102134 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:02:50Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | American Institute of Physics (AIP) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1021342022-09-29T17:50:45Z Transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority-carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films: Advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material Sher, Meng-Ju Yang, Chuanxi Hartman, Katy Lindenberg, Aaron M. Gordon, Roy G. Jaramillo, Rafael Ofori-Okai, Benjamin Kwasi Steinmann, Vera Nelson, Keith Adam Buonassisi, Tonio Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Jaramillo, Rafael Ofori-Okai, Benjamin Kwasi Steinmann, Vera Hartman, Katy Nelson, Keith Adam Buonassisi, Tonio Materials research with a focus on enhancing the minority-carrier lifetime of the light-absorbing semiconductor is key to advancing solar energy technology for both early stage and mature material platforms alike. Tin sulfide (SnS) is an absorber material with several clear advantages for manufacturing and deployment, but the record power conversion efficiency remains below 5%. We report measurements of bulk and interface minority-carrier recombination rates in SnSthin films using optical-pump, terahertz-probe transient photoconductivity (TPC) measurements. Post-growth thermal annealing in H[subscript 2]S gas increases the minority-carrier lifetime, and oxidation of the surface reduces the surface recombination velocity. However, the minority-carrier lifetime remains below 100 ps for all tested combinations of growth technique and post-growth processing. Significant improvement in SnSsolar cell performance will hinge on finding and mitigating as-yet-unknown recombination-active defects. We describe in detail our methodology for TPC experiments, and we share our data analysis routines in the form freely available software. United States. Dept. of Energy. SunShot Initiative (Contract DE-EE0005329) Robert Bosch GmbH (Grant 02.20.MC11) United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (Postdoctoral Research Award) National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Intel Corporation (PhD Fellowship) United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DE-FG02-00ER15087) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CHE-1111557) 2016-04-04T17:34:53Z 2016-04-04T17:34:53Z 2016-01 2015-10 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0021-8979 1089-7550 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102134 Jaramillo, R., Meng-Ju Sher, Benjamin K. Ofori-Okai, V. Steinmann, Chuanxi Yang, Katy Hartman, Keith A. Nelson, Aaron M. Lindenberg, Roy G. Gordon, and T. Buonassisi. “Transient Terahertz Photoconductivity Measurements of Minority-Carrier Lifetime in Tin Sulfide Thin Films: Advanced Metrology for an Early Stage Photovoltaic Material.” Journal of Applied Physics 119, no. 3 (January 21, 2016): 035101. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6715-5195 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8345-4937 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0737-6786 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7804-5418 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3116-6719 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4940157 Journal of Applied Physics Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Institute of Physics (AIP) AIP Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Sher, Meng-Ju Yang, Chuanxi Hartman, Katy Lindenberg, Aaron M. Gordon, Roy G. Jaramillo, Rafael Ofori-Okai, Benjamin Kwasi Steinmann, Vera Nelson, Keith Adam Buonassisi, Tonio Transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority-carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films: Advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material |
| title | Transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority-carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films: Advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material |
| title_full | Transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority-carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films: Advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material |
| title_fullStr | Transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority-carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films: Advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material |
| title_full_unstemmed | Transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority-carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films: Advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material |
| title_short | Transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority-carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films: Advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material |
| title_sort | transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements of minority carrier lifetime in tin sulfide thin films advanced metrology for an early stage photovoltaic material |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102134 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6715-5195 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8345-4937 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0737-6786 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7804-5418 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3116-6719 |
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