Antimony Selenide Solar Cells Fabricated by Hybrid Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

The fabrication of Sb₂Se₃ thin-film solar cells deposited by a pulsed hybrid reactive magnetron sputtering (PHRMS) was proposed and examined for different growth conditions. The influence of growth temperature and Se pulse period were studied in terms of morphology, crystal structure, and composition. The Sb₂Se₃ growth showed to be dependent on the growth temperature, with a larger crystal size for growth at 270 °C. By controlling the Se pulse period, the crystal structure and crystal size could be modified as a function of the supplied Se amount. The solar cell performance for Sb₂Se₃ absorbers deposited at various temperatures, Se pulse periods and thicknesses were assessed through current-voltage characteristics. A power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.7% was achieved for a Sb₂Se₃ solar cell with 900 nm thickness, Sb₂Se₃ deposited at 270 °C and Se pulses with 0.1 s duration and period of 0.5 s. Finally, annealing the complete solar cell at 100 °C led to a further improvement of the V_oc, leading to a PCE of 3.8%, slightly higher than the best reported Sb₂Se₃ solar cell prepared by sputtering without post-selenization.