Concurrent investigation of antimony chalcogenide (Sb₂Se₃ and Sb₂S₃)-based solar cells with a potential WS₂ electron...

Antimony (Sb) chalcogenides such as antimony selenide (Sb₂Se₃) and antimony sulfide (Sb₂S₃) have distinct properties to be used as absorber semiconductors for harnessing solar energy including high absorption coefficient, tunable bandgap, low toxicity, phase stability. The potentiality of Sb₂Se₃ and Sb₂S₃ as absorber material in Al/FTO/Sb₂Se₃(or Sb₂S₃)/Au heterojunction solar cells (HJSCs) with 2D tungsten disulfide (WS₂) electron transport layer (ETL) layer has been investigated numerically using SCAPS-1D solar simulator. A systematic investigation of the impact of physical properties of each active material of Sb₂Se₃, Sb₂S_3, and WS₂ on photovoltaic parameters including layer thickness, carrier doping concentration, bulk defect density, interface defect density, carrier generation, and recombination. This study emphasizes the exploration of causes of low performance of actual devices and demonstrates the individual variation in the open-circuit voltage (V_OC), short-circuit current density (J_SC), fill factor (FF), power conversion efficiency (PCE) and quantum efficiency (QE). Thereby, highly potential heterostructures of Al/FTO/WS₂/absorber (Sb₂Se₃ or Sb₂S₃)/Au proposed, in which, the PCE over 28.20 and 26.60% obtained with V of 850 and 1230 mV, J of 38.0 and 24.0 mA/cm², and FF of 86.0 and 89.0% for Sb₂Se₃ and Sb₂S₃ absorber, respectively. These detailed findings revealed that the Sb-chalcogenide heterostructure with potential WS₂ ETL can be used to realize the fabrication of feasible thin film solar cells and thus the design of high-efficiency high-current (HEHC) and high-efficiency high-voltage (HEHV) solar panels.