Study of mechanisms of electrodeposition of thin films semiconductors for photovoltaic destination
In this work, we report some preliminary results concerning the fabrication of quaternary semiconductor Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films grown on indium tin oxide (FTO) substrates by electrodeposition, to investigate it as a possible absorber layer in thin film solar cells. The goal is to find out whether electrodeposition is a good method of growing these films, and define the optimal parameters to increase the efficiency of the conversion of the solar cells. The originality of this work is to study the mechanism of the electrodeposition of the simple elements and extend it to reach the quaternary compound (CZTS) on the FTO glass and on a gold electrode as a reference, by a potentiostatic deposition from aqueous baths at room temperature and annealing with a variation of some proprieties. The morphological properties and composition of CZTS thin films were studied using Scanning Microscope Electronics (SEM) These properties are found to be strongly dependent on the concentration of the complexing agent. CZTS thin films having a smooth surface, with a dense and uniform topography were obtained with a complexing agent concentration of 0.2M. The spectrum of the chemical composition of the deposited films showed the presence of all elements constituting the CZTS.