Reconstructing the energy band electronic structure of pulsed laser deposited CZTS thin films intended for solar cell absorber applications

We report here on the use of pulsed KrF-laser deposition (PLD) technique for the growth of high-quality Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films onto Si, and glass substrates without resorting to any post sulfurization process. The PLD-CZTS films were deposited at room temperature (RT) and then subjected to post annealing at different temperatures ranging from 200 to 500 degrees C in Argon atmosphere. The X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy confirmed that the PLD films crystallize in the characteristic kesterite CZTS structure regardless of their annealing temperature (T-a), but their crystallinity is much improved for T-a >= 400 degrees C. The PLD-CZTS films were found to exhibit a relatively dense morphology with a surface roughness (RMS) that increases with T-a (from similar to 14 nm at RT to 70 nm at T-a = 500 degrees C with a value around 40 nm for T-a = 300-400 degrees C). The optical bandgap of the PLD-CZTS films, was derived from UV-vis transmission spectra analysis, and found to decrease from 1.73 eV for non-annealed films to similar to 1.58 eV for those annealed at T-a = 300 degrees C. These band gap values are very close to the optimum value needed for an ideal solar cell absorber. In order to achieve a complete reconstruction of the one-dimensional energy band structure of these PLD-CZTS absorbers, we have combined both XPS and UPS spectroscopies to determine their chemical bondings, the position of their valence band maximum (relative to Fermi level), and their work function values. This enabled us to sketch out, as accurately as possible, the band alignment of the heterojunction interface formed between CZTS and both CdS and ZnS buffer layer materials. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.