Fabrication and characterization of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films by sputtering a single target at different temperature

Cu2ZnSnS4(CZTS) thin films were directly deposited by sputtering with a single target at different temperatures, compared with the sulfurization process after sputtering the metal precursor, which is not only simplified the preparation process also the obtained CZTS thin film had good crystallinity with large grain size and dense morphology. The solar cell fabricated with the CZTS thin film sputtered at an optimized temperature of 500 °C shows a conversion efficiency of 1.87% with Voc = 580 mV, Jsc = 8.47 mA/cm2, and FF = 37.8%, its band gap energy is found to be 1.52 eV. These results show that the process without sulfurization is suitable for the growth of kesterite CZTS solar cell absorbers.