Published February 14, 2019 | Version v1
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Progress and Perspectives of Thin Film Kesterite Photovoltaic Technology: A Critical Review

  • 1. Catalonia Institute for Energy Research – IREC, 08930 Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona, Spain

Description

The latest progress and future perspectives of thin film photovoltaic kesterite technology are reviewed herein. Kesterite is currently the most promising emerging fully inorganic thin film photovoltaic technology based on critical raw-material-free and sustainable solutions. The positioning of kesterites in the frame of the emerging inorganic solar cells is first addressed, and the recent history of this family of materials briefly described. A review of the fast progress achieved earlier this decade is presented, toward the relative slowdown in the recent years partly explained by the large open-circuit voltage (VOC) deficit recurrently observed even in the best solar cell devices in the literature. Then, through a comparison with the close cousin Cu(In,Ga)Se2 technology, doping and alloying strategies are proposed as critical for enhancing the conversion efficiency of kesterite. In the second section herein, intrinsic and extrinsic doping, as well as alloying strategies are reviewed, presenting the most relevant and recent results, and proposing possible pathways for future implementation. In the last section, a review on technological applications of kesterite is presented, going beyond conventional photovoltaic devices, and demonstrating their suitability as potential candidates in advanced tandem concepts, photocatalysis, thermoelectric, gas sensing, etc.

Notes

This research was supported by the H2020 Programme under the projects STARCELL (H2020-NMBP-03-2016-720907) and INFINITE-CELL (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017-777968), by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under the IGNITE (ENE2017-87671- C3-1-R) and WINCOST (ENE2016-80788-C5-1-R), and by the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF, FEDER Programa Competitivitat de Catalunya 2007–2013). Authors from IREC and the University of Barcelona belong to the SEMS (Solar Energy Materials and Systems) Consolidated Research Group of the "Generalitat de Catalunya" (Ref. 2017 SGR 862). S.G. thanks the Government of Spain for the FPI fellowship (BES-2014-068533), M.P. for the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship (RYC-2017 23758), and Z.J. for the TECNIOspring PLUS Fellowship CLEARSUN. E.S. thanks the STARCELL and INFINITE-CELL consortiums for their continuous support. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 712949 (TECNIOspring PLUS) and the Government of Catalonia's Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIÓ).

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