N-type conductive tin sulfide thin films for eco-friendly solar cells

• Tin sulfide (SnS) is an abundant, secure, as well as eco-friendly solar cell material. This low-cost material is anticipated to be used in next-generation solar cell panels.

A research group led by Issei Suzuki and Sakiko Kawanishi, assistant professors at Tohoku University's Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, has made n-type conductive SnS thin films by contamination doping for the very first time.

Conventional SnS thin films are normally p-type conductive. Hence, SnS thin-film solar cells have been fabricated using a pn heterojunction with p-type SnS thin film and other n-type semiconductor thin films, such as CdS. Nevertheless, the conversion performance of such heterojunction gadgets has actually stagnated at around 5%, making their usage impractical.

The SnS thin-film solar cells employing a pn homojunction, which uses SnS thin films for both p-type and also n-type layers, is anticipated to show greater conversion effectiveness. Yet, n-type helpful SnS thin films without toxic elements have actually never ever been attained before.

Utilizing chlorine-doping and also a sulfur plasma supply, the research group reduced the lattice defects preventing the n-type conversion of SnS, recognizing the globe's very first n-type SnS thin films without toxic elements.

"Our realization leads the way for useful pn homojunction SnS thin-film solar cells," stated Suzuki

The results of the research were published in Physical Review Materials on December 9, 2021.