Disorder induced band gap lowering in kesterite type Cu₂ZnSnSe₄and Ag₂ZnSnSe₄: a first-principles and special...

Quaternary chalcogenides, i.e. Cu₂ZnSnS₄, crystallising in the kesterite crystal structure have already been demonstrated as potential building blocks of thin film solar cells, containing only abundant elements and exhibiting power conversion efficiencies of about 14.9% so far. However, due to the potential presence of several structurally similar polymorphs, the unequivocal identification of their ground state crystal structures required the application of more elaborate neutron diffraction experiments. One particular complication arose from the later identified Cu-Zn disorder, present in virtually all thin film samples. Subsequently, it has been shown experimentally that this unavoidable Cu-Zn disorder leads to a band gap lowering in the respective samples. Additional theoretical investigations, mostly based on Monte-Carlo methods, tried to understand the atomistic origin of this disorder induced band gap lowering. Here, we present theoretical results from first-principles calculations based on density functional theory for the disorder induced band gap lowering in kesterite Cu₂ZnSnSe₄and Ag₂ZnSnSe₄, where the Cu-Zn and Ag-Zn disorder is modelled via a supercell approach and special quasirandom structures. Results of subsequent analyses of structural, electronic, and optical properties are discussed with respect to available experimental results, and will provide additional insight and knowledge towards the atomistic origin of the observed disorder induced band gap lowering in kesterite type materials.