Variable Temperature and Carrier-Resolved Photo-Hall Measurements of High-Performance Selenium Thin-Film Solar Cells

TL;DR

This study employs advanced carrier-resolved photo-Hall and temperature-dependent measurements to analyze charge carrier properties in selenium, aiming to improve the understanding and performance of selenium thin-film solar cells.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive characterization approach combining photo-Hall and temperature measurements to better understand selenium's carrier dynamics and improve solar cell performance.

Findings

Identified carrier mobilities and concentrations in selenium under various conditions.

Reconciled discrepancies between different characterization techniques.

Demonstrated improved device simulation accuracy for selenium solar cells.

Abstract

Selenium is an elemental semiconductor with a wide bandgap suitable for a range of optoelectronic and solar energy conversion technologies. However, developing such applications requires an in-depth understanding of the fundamental material properties. Here, we study the properties of the majority and minority charge carriers in selenium using a recently developed carrier-resolved photo-Hall technique, which enables simultaneous mapping of the mobilities and concentrations of both carriers under varying light intensities. Additionally, we perform temperature-dependent Hall measurements to extract information about the acceptor level and ionization efficiency. Our findings are compared to results from other advanced characterization techniques, and the inconsistencies are outlined. Finally, we characterize a high-performance selenium thin-film solar cell and perform device simulations to systematically address each discrepancy and accurately reproduce experimental current-voltage and external quantum efficiency measurements. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the optoelectronic properties and carrier dynamics in selenium, which may guide future improvements and facilitate the development of higher-efficiency selenium solar cells.