Fabrication of Cu2SnS3 thin film solar cells using pulsed laser deposition technique

•We reported a PLD route to synthesize CTS thin films for the first time.•The conversion efficiency of 0.82% with current density of 11.90 mA/cm2 was achieved.•The present report gives the better VOC for the CTS based thin film solar cells.

Ternary chalcogenide semiconductor Cu2SnS3 (CTS) is an emerging material, attracting increasing interest for the applications in thin film solar cells. Here we report a pulsed laser deposition route to synthesize compact and single phase CTS thin films for the first time. The effects of the annealing temperature on the formation of CTS films were investigated. XRD and Raman studies revealed that the annealed CTS thin films have a polycrystalline nature with a cubic crystal structure, and the crystalline size of the CTS thin films increases as the annealing temperature increases. The direct optical band gap energy of the CTS thin film annealed at 400 °C is found to be 1.01 eV. Hall effect measurements indicate that the film has a p-type conductivity with a hole mobility of 0.51 cm2/V s. Finally, a thin film solar cell was fabricated with a SLG/Mo/CTS/CdS/i-ZnO/AZO/Al structure. A photo-electric conversion efficiency of 0.82% was achieved with a short circuit current density of 11.90 mA/cm2. We are successful in achieving the better values of VOC for the CTS solar cells. The route developed here may provide an alternative approach to produce CTS thin film solar cells.