Impact of various dopant elements on the electronic structure of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films: a DFT study

New structures made based on Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) by substitutions with Cr, Ti, V, and Mo species were investigated via density functional theory. The total substitution of Zn by Cr and V leads to the vanishing of the bandgap, while n-type conductivity with a low bandgap of 0.19 eV was predicted in the case Ti. In addition, the conduction band minimum and valence band maximum overlapping were observed for the Mo/Sn ratio of 1/3. Therefore, our study suggests that even the low content of alternative cations in CZTS allows to control its band alignment. The obtained results can be helpful for designing CZTS-based intermediate layers to improve the quality of the back interface of the CZTS thin-film solar cells.