Reactive sputtering and composition measurements of precursors for Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film solar cells

Abstract: Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a thin film solar cell material that only contains abundant elements and for which promising conversion efficiencies of 9.2 % have been shown. In this thesis composition measurements and reactive sputtering of precursors for CZTS films have been studied. These precursors can be annealed to create high quality CZTS films.Accurate control and measurement of composition are important for the synthesis process. The composition of a reference sample was determined using Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. This sample was thereafter used to find the composition of unknown samples with x-ray fluorescence measurements. Pros and cons with this approach were discussed.The reactive sputtering process, and the resulting thin films, from a CuSn- and a Zn-target sputtered in H2S-atmosphere were investigated and described. A process curve of the system was presented and the influence of sputtering pressure and substrate temperature were examined. The pressures tested had little influence on the film properties but the substrate temperature affected both composition and morphology, giving less Zn, Sn and S and a more oriented film with increasingly facetted surface for higher temperatures.The precursors produced with this method are suggested to have a disordered phase with randomized cations, giving a CZTS-like response from Raman spectroscopy but a ZnS-pattern from x-ray diffraction measurements. The films have an excellent homogeneity and it is possible to achieve stoichiometric sulfur content.The complete steps from precursors, to annealed films, to finished solar cells were investigated for three controlled compositions and three substrate temperatures. The films sputtered at room temperature cracked when annealed and thus gave shunted solar cells. For the samples sputtered at higher temperatures the trend was an increased grain size for higher copper content and increased temperature. However, no connection between this and the electrical properties of the solar cells could be found.