Application of CuInS2 and ZnO nanoparticles in colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics

Colloidal quantum dots (CQD) are attractive for photovoltaics because of their solution processability and spectral tunability due to quantum size effects. Rapid advances in CQD photovoltaics in the recent years have led to high power conversion efficiencies. Previous works mainly focused on highly toxic materials containing cadmium or lead which might limit their possible application. One promising alternative material is CuInS2 (CIS) which has shown attractive device performance in thin film solar cells. Here, we present solution processed CIS nanoparticles as absorber layer in nanocrystal based solar cells. In order to achieve efficient charge separation we use a heterojunction based on a bilayer structure of CIS and intrinsically n-doped ZnO nanocrystals. One issue in thin film photovoltaics is the optimization of the absorber thickness, taking into account light absorption as well as charge carrier collection. Therefore, we determined the absorption coefficient and transport properties which can serve as input parameters into an electro-optical simulation in order to determine the optimal absorber thickness.