Stepwise Pre‐Treatment Enables Tunable Phase Evolution for High‐Efficiency Co‐Evaporated and Sulfurized Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 Solar Cells
Abstract
Controlling the phase evolution during the sulfurization of co-evaporated Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is crucial for developing efficient solar cells. Here, a stepwise pre-treatment strategy combining pre-alloying and pre-sulfurization was developed to precisely regulate the phase-evolution kinetics of CZTS absorbers. During the pre-alloying stage, elemental distribution was homogenized and atomic diffusion pathways were established, while the subsequent pre-sulfurization process enabled uniform sulfur incorporation throughout the precursor film. This resulted in the precursor transforming into CZTS in a single step, without the formation of secondary phases. Compared with conventional high-temperature sulfurization, this strategy yielded highly dense, through-thickness columnar grains with a reduced defect density. In addition, a ZnxSn1-xO (ZTO) buffer layer was employed to substitute for the conventional CdS layer, achieving a completely Cd-free architecture. Consequently, we report a Cd-free solar cell with a high efficiency of 10.62%, representing the state-of-the-art for co-evaporated CZTS devices. This work provides important insights into the sulfurization mechanism and phase-evolution kinetics of kesterite absorbers, offering an effective strategy for the development of high-performance thin-film photovoltaics.
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BibTeX
@article{zhou2026stepwise,
title = {{Stepwise Pre‐Treatment Enables Tunable Phase Evolution for High‐Efficiency Co‐Evaporated and Sulfurized Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 Solar Cells}},
author = {Jiahui Zhou and Yue Jian and Gang Yang and Abbas Muhammad and Zhengqiang Zhao and Shuo Chen and Zhenghua Su and Hongli Ma and Xianghua Zhang and Guangxing Liang},
journal = {Susmat},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/sus2.70097},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05781187v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Stepwise Pre‐Treatment Enables Tunable Phase Evolution for High‐Efficiency Co‐Evaporated and Sulfurized Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 Solar Cells
AU - Jiahui Zhou
AU - Yue Jian
AU - Gang Yang
AU - Abbas Muhammad
AU - Zhengqiang Zhao
AU - Shuo Chen
AU - Zhenghua Su
AU - Hongli Ma
AU - Xianghua Zhang
AU - Guangxing Liang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
JO - Susmat
DO - 10.1002/sus2.70097
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05781187v1
AB - Controlling the phase evolution during the sulfurization of co-evaporated Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is crucial for developing efficient solar cells. Here, a stepwise pre-treatment strategy combining pre-alloying and pre-sulfurization was developed to precisely regulate the phase-evolution kinetics of CZTS absorbers. During the pre-alloying stage, elemental distribution was homogenized and atomic diffusion pathways were established, while the subsequent pre-sulfurization process enabled uniform sulfur incorporation throughout the precursor film. This resulted in the precursor transforming into CZTS in a single step, without the formation of secondary phases. Compared with conventional high-temperature sulfurization, this strategy yielded highly dense, through-thickness columnar grains with a reduced defect density. In addition, a ZnxSn1-xO (ZTO) buffer layer was employed to substitute for the conventional CdS layer, achieving a completely Cd-free architecture. Consequently, we report a Cd-free solar cell with a high efficiency of 10.62%, representing the state-of-the-art for co-evaporated CZTS devices. This work provides important insights into the sulfurization mechanism and phase-evolution kinetics of kesterite absorbers, offering an effective strategy for the development of high-performance thin-film photovoltaics.
SN - 2692-4552
SN - 2766-8479
ER -