Fabrication and evaluation of CdS/PbS thin film solar cell by chemical bath deposition technique

•Polyvinyl alcohol matrix-capped PbS thin film from a complexing agent free system•Fabrication of CdS/PbS solar cell based on chemical bath deposition technique•An efficiency of 1.668% is achieved under one SUN illumination.

A solar cell with the structure glass/SnO2/CdS/PbS/HgTe has been fabricated where both window (CdS) and absorber (PbS) layers were deposited by a chemical bath deposition technique which is completely free from any complexing agents. The films were prepared by in-situ thermolysis of precursors confined in polyvinyl alcohol matrix (PVA). As the method is free of any complexing agent, hence no need to control the pH of the solution. The as-prepared films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy. The surface morphology clearly shows that as synthesized CdS/PVA and PbS/PVA thin films were nanostructured, almost homogeneous, without any pinholes or cracks and covered the substrate well. The photovoltaic parameters of the cell were measured with the Keithley 2400 source meter under one sun illumination and efficiency of the cell was found to be 1.668%.