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Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) is a promising material for solar energy conversion due to its low toxicity, high stability, and excellent light absorption capabilities. However, Sb2Se3 films produced via physical vapor deposition often exhibit Se-deficient surfaces, which result in a high carrier recombination and poor device performance. The conventional selenization process was used to address selenium loss in Sb2Se3 solar cells with a substrate configuration. However, this traditional selenization method is not suitable for superstrated Sb2Se3 devices with the window layer buried underneath the Sb2Se3 light absorber layer, as it can lead to significant diffusion of the window layer material into Sb2Se3 and damage the device. In this work, we have demonstrated a rapid thermal selenization (RTS) technique that can effectively selenize the Sb2Se3 absorber layer while preventing the S diffusion from the buried CdS window layer into the Sb2Se3 absorber layer. The RTS technique significantly reduces carrier recombination loss and carrier transport resistance and can achieve the highest efficiency of 8.25%. Overall, the RTS method presents a promising approach for enhancing low-dimensional chalcogenide thin films for emerging superstrate chalcogenide solar cell applications.
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This content will become publicly available on July 28, 2026
Heteroepitaxial growth of highly anisotropic Sb2Se3 films on GaAs
We prepare quasi-1D films of Sb2Se3 on GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy. The aligned grains and anisotropic bonding hierarchy of the Sb2Se3 unit cell together produce giant birefringence in the near-infrared.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2036520
- PAR ID:
- 10628117
- Publisher / Repository:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Materials Horizons
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 15
- ISSN:
- 2051-6347
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 5829 to 5838
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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