Post-growth annealing effect on the performance of Cu₂SnSe₃ solar cells

In this work, the effect of post-deposition annealing in selenium environment was studied on Cu₂SnSe₃ thin film solar cells prepared from solid solution by doctor blade method. XRD pattern confirms deposited films are of polycrystalline nature having cubic phases with (1 1 1) orientation. The crystallinity improves with the increase in annealing temperature. At high annealing temperature surface agglomeration was found which is due to the melting and re-evaporation of the components from the surface. Electrical properties like carrier mobility, conductivity also modified with the increase in annealing temperature. Maximum efficiency of 1.17% was achieved for the sample annealed at 400 °C having barrier height (ϕ _b), ideality factor (n) and series resistance (R_s) nearly equal to 0.71 eV, 1.5 and 69 Ω respectively. (paper)