Wide Bandgap Tellurium Oxide Semiconductor as A Back Contact Modifier for Efficient n-i-p Sb 2 Se 3 Solar Cells

作者：Dingzheng Wang, Zhi Chao Lin, Anwen Gong, Chen Zuo, Jie Zeng, Yong Zhang, Kai Shen, Huafei Guo, Baomin Xu, Cong Liu, Yaohua Mai · 发表于：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1021/acsami.4c19438 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Chalcogenide Semiconductor Thin Films、Quantum Dots Synthesis And Properties、Phase-change materials and chalcogenides

The wide-bandgap and p-type semiconductor layer plays a crucial role in the antimony selenide (Sb 2 Se 3 ) solar cells, as it can provide carrier confinement and inhibit interface recombination. In this work, the tellurium (Te) thin layer is innovatively applied in superstrate Sb 2 Se 3 solar cells, which is further in situ oxidized to wide-bandgap (3.67 eV) tellurium oxide (TeO x ). Experimental results indicate that both Te and TeO x layers can enhance the built-in potential and depletion width of devices and reduce nonradiative recombination at back interfaces. Furthermore, the TeO x layer enables better hole transportation due to the favorable band alignment at Sb 2 Se 3 /TeO x interfaces. As a congener of Selenium (Se), the Te component of TeO x is found to effectively passivate the selenium vacancy ( V Se ) defects at the surface of Sb 2 Se 3 absorbers. Consequently, the all-inorganic devices with TeO x show a high voltage of 0.463 V and a champion power conversion efficiency of 9.67%, which is one of the highest efficiencies for the Sb 2 Se 3 solar cells based on vacuum coating technology. This study provides a unique and useful back contact modification strategy for high-performance Sb 2 Se 3 solar cells.