Tellurium Doping Inducing Defect Passivation for Highly Effective Antimony Selenide Thin Film Solar Cell

Antimony selenide (Sb(2)Se(3)) is emerging as a promising photovoltaic material owing to its excellent photoelectric property. However, the low carrier transport efficiency, and detrimental surface oxidation of the Sb(2)Se(3) thin film greatly influenced the further improvement of the device efficiency. In this study, the introduction of tellurium (Te) can induce the benign growth orientation and the desirable Sb/Se atomic ratio in the Te-Sb(2)Se(3) thin film. Under various characterizations, it found that the Te-doping tended to form Sb(2)Te(3)-doped Sb(2)Se(3), instead of alloy-type Sb(2)(Se,Te)(3). After Te doping, the mitigation of surface oxidation has been confirmed by the Raman spectra. High-quality Te-Sb(2)Se(3) thin films with preferred [hk1] orientation, large grain size, and low defect density can be successfully prepared. Consequently, a 7.61% efficiency Sb(2)Se(3) solar cell has been achieved with a V(OC) of 474 mV, a J(SC) of 25.88 mA/cm(2), and an FF of 64.09%. This work can provide an effective strategy for optimizing the physical properties of the Sb(2)Se(3) absorber, and therefore the further efficiency improvement of the Sb(2)Se(3) solar cells.