Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) emerges as a promising sunlight absorber in thin film photovoltaic applications due to its excellent light absorption properties and carrier transport behavior, attributed to the quasi‐one‐dimensional Sb4Se6‐nanoribbon crystal structure. Overcoming the challenge of aligning Sb2Se3‐nanoribbons normal to substrates for efficient photogenerated carrier extraction, a solution‐processed nanocrystalline Sb2(S,Se)3‐seeds are employed on the CdS buffer layer. These seeds facilitate superstrated Sb2Se3thin film solar cell growth through a close‐space sublimation approach. The Sb2(S,Se)3‐seeds guided the Sb2Se3absorber growth along a [002]‐preferred crystal orientation, ensuring a smoother interface with the CdS window layer. Remarkably, Sb2(S,Se)3‐seeds improve carrier transport, reduce series resistance, and increase charge recombination resistance, resulting in an enhanced power conversion efficiency of 7.52%. This cost‐effective solution‐processed seeds planting approach holds promise for advancing chalcogenide‐based thin film solar cells in large‐scale manufacturing. 
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                            Heterostructured CdS Buffer Layer for Sb2Se3 Thin Film Solar Cell
                        
                    
    
            The antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) thin film solar cells technology become promising due to its excellent anisotropic charge transport and brilliant light absorption capability. Especially, the device performance heavily relies on the vertically oriented Sb2Se3 grain to promote photoexcited carrier transport. However, crystalline orientation control has been a major issue in Sb2Se3 thin film solar cells. In this work, a new strategy has been developed to tailor the crystal growth of Sb2Se3 ribbons perpendicular to the substrate by using the structural heterostructured CdS buffer layer. The heterostructured CdS buffer layer was formed by a dual layer of CdS nanorods and nanoparticles. The hexagonal CdS nanorods passivated by a thin cubic CdS nanoparticle layer can promote [211] and [221] directional growth of Sb2Se3 ribbons using a close space sublimation approach. The improved buffer/absorber interface, reduced interface defects, and recombination loss contribute to the improved device efficiency of 7.16%. This new structural heterostructured CdS buffer layer can regulate Sb2Se3 nanoribbons crystal growth and pave the way to further improve the low-dimensional chalcogenide thin film solar cell efficiency. 
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                            - Award ID(s):
- 1944374
- PAR ID:
- 10425224
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Solar RRL
- ISSN:
- 2367-198X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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