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Sb 2 Se 3 , a very promising absorber layer for thin film solar cells, has attracted more and more attention because of its special structural and optical properties. In this work, pulsed laser deposition (PLD), a simple and effective technique, was used to deposit CdS/Sb 2 Se 3 solar cells for the first time. Results show that the grain size is 200–250 nm, the bandgap is calculated to be 1.21 eV and Sb 2 Se 3 thin film with thickness of 400 nm is more suitable for solar cells. To reduce reflection loss, lattice mismatch and shunt pathways, SnO 2 high resistive layer was introduced into Sb 2 Se 3 solar cells. Due to the introduction of SnO 2 , overall performance, especially J sc , was improved and champion device was achieved with efficiency of 4.77%. Image 1 • Sb 2 Se 3 solar cells were deposited by pulsed laser deposition for the first time. • PLD-Sb 2 Se 3 thin film has a bandgap of 1.21 eV and grain size is 200–250 nm. • PLD-Sb 2 Se 3 with thickness of 400 nm is more suitable for solar cells. • The introduction of SnO 2 improves device performance, especially J sc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxygen incorporation into ZnSe thin films in Ar/O 2 or O 2 ambient during radio-frequency sputtering was studied in this paper. With the increase of oxygen partial pressure ratio, the poor crystalline quality occurred in the films accompanying with a SeO 2 secondary phase. The values of optical band gap for the films increased after light oxygen doping, ranging from 2.65 to 2.88 eV, which indicates the formation of ZnSeO ternary compounds. The near-band edge emission was observed in all samples, i.e., electronic transitions from the valence band to the conduction band. Nevertheless, heavy incorporation of O in ZnSe thin films led to the formation of the thin films with wide energy band gap (∼5.61 eV) and high optical transmittance (∼90%). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra indicate that oxygen atoms ionized by plasma enhanced the formation of SeO 2 bonds with Se of ZnSe under the non-equilibrium conditions and many oxygen ions incorporated in the random sites, resulting in the formation of amorphous states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum antimony (AlSb) is a potential absorber for solar cells. In present work, we fabricated AlSb thin films by using pulsed laser deposition method, and investigated the influence of substrate temperature on the structural, electrical and optical properties of AlSb thin films. The results suggested that the AlSb thin films were crystal when the substrate temperature was higher than 300 °C. The average grain size of AlSb films increased and the electrical resistivity decreased with the increase of substrate temperature. At the optimized temperature of 400 °C, the optical band gap of AlSb thin film was 1.82eV. The simulated device performance of ZnS/AlSb ultra-thin solar cells showed that the power conversion efficiency was 18.01% and the quantum efficiency values were higher than 55% in the visible range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]