The role of sulfurization temperature on the morphological, structural and optical properties of electroplated Cu2MnSnS4 absorbers for photovoltaics

In the present work, the effect mechanisms of the sulfurization temperature on the Cu2MnSnS4 (CMTS) absorbers and the photovoltaic characteristics of devices were studied systematically. The results indicate that an increase in sulfurization temperature form 500 °C to 560 °C significantly improves the crystallinity and morphology, lowers the band gap of the CMTS absorbers, and eventually enhances the photovoltaic performance. However, a further increase in the temperature to 590 °C degrades the crystallinity and morphology. By tuning sulfurization temperature, the short current density (Jsc) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) increase over fourfold. When the temperature optimized to 560 °C, the CMTS solar cell shows the highest PCE of 0.91% with Jsc = 7.71 mA·cm−2, Voc = 320 mV and FF = 37%.