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7, 8, 9 7; 8; 9

Kesterite-based solar cells are mainly restricted by their lower than expected open-circuit voltage (Voc) due to non-radiative recombination. Therefore, an approach to reduce bulk and interface recombination through band gap grading to induce a back surface field is attempted. This contribution presents the challenges in the formation of compositional grading of the wide bandgap material Cu2ZnGexSn1−xS4 (CZGTS) and successful fabrication of solar cells with an additional adhesive TiN interlayer. It is observed that the TiN interlayer improves adhesion between CZGTS and the back contact. The microstructure of the Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) film is significantly affected by the concentration of Ge, and the existence of a Ge concentration gradient is strongly correlated to the formation of smaller Ge-rich and larger Sn-rich grains. The bandgap grading is exploited with a moderate Ge concentration of up to (Ge/(Ge+Sn) = 0.25) in CZTS. As the Ge profile stretched all the way to the front interface, the cliff-like band alignment at the front interface of the absorber could negate the beneficial effect of Ge inclusion in the bulk and back interface of the absorber. Ordering the absorber can introduce an additional downward shift in the valence band. In one of the samples, the increased ordering and high concentration of Ge in CZTS are suggested to enhance the hole barrier at the back interface. It is concluded that the effect of the bandgap grading with Ge can only be realized with optimization of interface band alignment and back contact formation.

As-produced Cr-coated Optimized ZIRLO™ cladding material fabricated with the cold-spray (CS) deposition process is studied. Cross-sectional electron microscopy, nano-hardness profiling, transmission electron microscopy, transmission Kikuchi diffraction, and atom probe tomography (APT) were performed to investigate the nature of the CS Cr-coating/Optimized ZIRLO™ interface, the microstructure of the coating, and the effects of the deposition on the Zr-substrate microstructure. The former surface of the Zr-substrate was found to have a highly deformed nano-crystalline microstructure, the formation of which was attributed to dynamic recrystallization occurring during coating deposition. This microstructural change, evaluated with electron backscattered diffraction and nano-hardness profiling, appeared to be confined to a depth of a few microns. Through APT analysis, a 10–20 nm thick intermixed bonding region was observed at the interface between coating and substrate. The chemical composition of this region suggests that this layer originated from a highly localized shearing and heating of a thin volume of the outermost former surface of the substrate. The study of the intermixed bonding region's crystalline structure was performed with high resolution transmission electron microscopy and revealed a distorted hexagonal close-packed structure.

Mono- to few-layer graphene materials are successfully synthesized multiple times using Cu-Ni alloy as a catalyst after a single-chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The multiple synthesis is realized by extracting carbon source pre-dissolved in the catalyst substrate. Firstly, graphene is grown by the CVD method on Cu-Ni catalyst substrates. Secondly, the same Cu-Nicatalyst foils are annealed, in absence of any external carbon precursor, to grow graphene using the carbon atoms pre-dissolved in the catalyst during the CVD process. This annealing process is repeated to synthesize graphene successfully until carbon is exhausted in the Cu-Ni foils. After the CVD growth and each annealing growth process, the as-grown graphene is removed using a bubbling transfer method. A wide range of characterizations are performed to examine the quality of the obtained graphene material and to monitor the carbon concentration in the catalyst substrates. Results show that graphene from each annealing growth process possesses a similar quality, which confirmed the good reproducibility of the method. This technique brings great freedom to graphene growth and applications, and it could be also used for other 2D material synthesis.