Comparative study of the CZTS, CuSbS2 and CuSbSe2 solar photovoltaic cell with an earth-abundant non-toxic buffer layer

In the present article, modeling outcomes of novel and third-generation heterojunctions (3G) thin-film solar cells (TFSCs): quaternary semiconductor compound CZTS and ternary semiconductor compound CuSbS2 and CuSbSe2 have been presented. Solar cells have been studied and analysed to investigate optimized structure with good efficiency. CuSbS2 and CuSbSe2 are promising earth-abundant photovoltaic absorber materials which are chemically simpler than the widely studied Cu2ZnSnS4. However, CuSbS2 and CuSbSe2 photovoltaic (PV) devices currently have relatively low efficiency and poor reproducibility, often due to suboptimal material quality and insufficient optoelectronic properties. To overcome these concerns, we carried out numerical analysis using the Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator-1 dimensional software (SCAPS-1D). The band alignment and several parameters such as thickness and doping concentration have been investigated. Further C-V, C-f and J-V characteristics are also studied to compare and optimize the performance of CZTS, CuSbS2 and CuSbSe2 solar cell. Understanding the constraints imposed by the CZTS, CuSbS2, and CuSbSe2 absorber layers could help this technology to overcome the lower efficiency barrier.