Fabrication and Characterization of p-SnS/n-Si Solar Cell by Thermal Evaporation Technique and the Effect of Ag-doped on Its Efficiency

Abstract

Tin sulfide (SnS) is a promising material for solar cell absorber layer applications due to its low cost, ease of availability and lower toxicity than other semiconductor materials, used for the same purpose. Thermal evaporation was used to deposit thin-film solar cells with SnS on glass and silicon substrates, with minimal silver doping ratios (0.02, 0.04 and 0.06) wt.% and thickness in the 125-nm range. Surface morphology, crystallite size and optical and electrical characteristics have all been thoroughly investigated. XRD analysis revealed that /both the undoped and Ag-doped SnS films were well crystallized, with an orthorhombic structure and polycrystalline nature. The (111) plane was the preferred orientation. Due to the low doping ratios, there are no silver-specific peaks. Additionally, the Scherer formula was used to calculate the crystallite size, which showed an increase from 3.7096 to 10.4716[Formula: see text]nm. AFM images showed that SnS: Ag (6[Formula: see text]wt.%) film has bigger grains than other samples. The Hall Effect test revealed that the film is p-type conductivity. The optical bandgap values were found to be in the (2.6–1.7[Formula: see text]eV) range. All of the SnS films had an absorption coefficient of more than [Formula: see text] above the fundamental absorption edge. These polycrystalline and highly absorbing SnS thin films can be used to make heterojunction solar cells. The wider energy gap of the produced films, which allows more light to reach the solar cell junction, was found to be connected to changes in thin film microstructure characteristics. The efficiency of the prepared solar cells reached 5.4% for the 6[Formula: see text]wt.%Ag-doped SnS/Si solar cell, with a fill factor of 0.46.