KCl Treatment of CdS Electron-Transporting Layer for Improved Performance of Sb₂(S,Se)₃ Solar Cells

Antimony sulfoselenide (Sb₂(S,Se)₃) is a promising light absorption material because of its high photoabsorption coefficient, appropriate band gap, superior stability, and abundant elemental storage. As an emerging solar material, hydrothermal deposition of Sb₂(S,Se)₃ solar cells has enabled a 10% efficiency threshold, where cadmium sulfide (CdS) is applied as an electron transport layer (ETL). The high-efficiency Sb₂(S,Se)₃ solar cells largely employ CdS as the ETL. In terms of efficiency improvement, there are two questions regarding the CdS substrate: (1) the high roughness of CdS grown on F-doped tin oxide glass which increases the roughness of the absorber layer and (2) the low conductivity of CdS films because of low purity of CdS film grown by chemical bath deposition. In this study, we demonstrate an effective potassium chloride (KCl) post-treatment to modify the CdS ETL for improving the Sb₂(S,Se)₃ solar cell efficiency. We found that KCl plays dual roles that reduce roughness and enhance conductivity of the CdS films, thus acquiring a maximum efficiency of 9.98%, which is 9.2% higher than the control device. This study provides a new method for the surface engineering of CdS layer to improve the morphological and electrical properties, which is significant for improving the performance of CdS-based thin-film solar cells.