Tunable structural, morphological and optical properties of undoped, Mn, Ni and Ag-doped CuInS2 thin films prepared by AACVD

The preparation of high-quality copper indium sulphide, CuInS2 photo-absorber material with tunable properties for efficient, low-cost, thin film solar cells using scalable methods remains a challenge. In order to address this, high quality off-stoichiometric undoped and Mn, Ni and Ag-doped CuInS2 (CIS) thin films have been deposited onto glass substrates by aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) using metal diethyldithiocarbamate precursors at temperatures of 350, 400 and 450 degrees C. Data from powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) suggest a correlation of morphology and composition of tetragonal phase (chalcopyrite and copper-gold-type) sulphur-deficient microcrystalline CIS thin films. For undoped thin films, near-infrared optical absorption and emission with tunable band gap between 1.32 and 1.42 eV are likely associated with donor-acceptor pairs involving deep or shallow electronic states such as sulphur vacancies (VS center dot center dot), indium-copper anti-sites (InCu center dot center dot) and indium interstitials (Ini center dot center dot center dot) as donors and copper vacancies (VCu ') as acceptors. Whilst Mn-doped thin films exhibit minimal tunable properties, Ni and Ag-doped films exhibit tunable morphology, composition and nearinfrared absorption for small dopant content. Though further studies are required to explore the defect chemistry, these results show the utility of AACVD in tuning structural, morphological and optical properties of undoped, Mn, Ni and Ag-doped CIS thin films.

Automated summary

High-quality undoped and doped CuInS2 thin films were deposited on glass substrates using AACVD, showing correlation between morphology and composition with optical properties. Undoped films exhibited tunable near-infrared optical absorption and emission, while doped films showed tunable morphology and composition. Further studies are needed to explore defect chemistry in these thin films.