Cu2CdGe(S,Se)4 SOLAR CELL ABSORBERS

Abstract

Disclosed herein are solar cells with kesterite-based absorbers that hold promise as a low-cost and durable technology to renewably produce electricity using solar energy conversion. The current state-of-the-art (SOA) for such kesterite solar cells is Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 and novel materials are required to suppress the formation bandgap-fluctuation- and charge-carrier-recombination-inducing defects and eventually to achieve solar cell efficiencies higher than the SOA. Three important material properties that govern the efficiency of a solar cell are the concentrations of performance-degrading defects, band gap, and chemical stability. Disclosed here is a stable material, specifically Cu2CdGe(S,Se)4, as a new candidate that can exhibit higher defect formation energies than Cu2ZnSnS4 and a nearly optimal bandgap, which can eventually result in higher solar-cell efficiencies in solar energy conversion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.