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This work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities Project WINCOST (ENE2016-80788-C5-2-R), Project RTI (2018-096498-B-I00, AEI/MICINN/ERDF) and European Project INFINITE CELL (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017-777968). Authors from IREC belong to the SEMS (Solar Energy Materials and Systems) Consolidated Research Group of the 'Generalitat de Catalunya' (Ref 2017 SGR 862). MG and MP acknowledge the financial support from Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities within the Juan de la Cierva (IJC2018-038199-I) and Ramon y Cajal (RYC-2017-23758) Fellowships respectively. MGP also acknowledges funding from AEI/MICINN (PTA2019-016763-I). The authors acknowledge the service from the MiNa Laboratory at IMN-CSIC, and funding from CM (project S2018/NMT-4291 TEC2SPACE), MINECO (project CSIC13-4E-1794) and European Union (FEDER, FSE). The authors would also like to thank Professor Rosalia Serna from IO-CSIC for helpful discussion.

Analysis of institutional authors

Ruiz-Perona, AAuthorMerino, JmAuthorLeon, MAuthorCaballero, RCorresponding Author

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May 24, 2021
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The effect of annealing temperature on Cu2ZnGeSe4 thin films and solar cells grown on transparent substrates

Publicated to:JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-MATERIALS. 4 (3): 34009- - 2021-07-01 4(3), DOI: 10.1088/2515-7639/abfa7b

Authors: Ruiz-Perona, Andrea; Sanchez, Yudania; Guc, Maxim; Kodalle, Tim; Placidi, Marcel; Merino, Jose Manuel; Cabello, Fatima; Garcia-Pardo, Marina; Leon, Maximo; Caballero, Raquel;

Affiliations

Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin Mat & Energie, PVcomB, Schwarzschildstr 3, D-12489 Berlin, Germany - Author
IO CSIC, Laser Proc Grp, Inst Opt, C Serrano 121, Madrid 28006, Spain - Author
IREC, Catalonia Inst Energy Res, C Jardins Dones Negre 1, Barcelona 08930, Spain - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Dept Fis Aplicada, C Francisco Tomas & Valiente 7, Madrid 28049, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Cataluna, Dept Engn Elect, C Jordi Girona 1, Barcelona 08034, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Semi-transparent solar cells are the next step for photovoltaics into our daily life. Over the last years, kesterite-type material has attracted a special attention to be used as an absorber in thin-film solar cells because of its low toxicity and earth abundant constituents. Here, Cu2ZnGeSe4 (CZGSe) thin films are grown by co-evaporation and subsequent annealing at a maximum temperature of 480 degrees C or 525 degrees C onto Mo/V2O5/FTO/glass stacks. The goal of this work is to investigate the influence of the annealing temperature on the composition, morphology, vibrational properties, and transmittance of CZGSe layers, the formation of secondary phases, and distribution of elements within the absorber layer as well as on the optoelectronic properties of the corresponding solar cell devices. Raising the annealing temperature to 525 degrees C leads to a more uniform distribution of Cu, Zn, Ge and Se throughout the absorber layer, a reduction of the presence of the GeSe2 secondary phase, which is mainly detected at 480 degrees C, a larger grain size and the formation of a thicker MoSe2 layer at the CZGSe/back contact interface. The strategy of increasing the annealing temperature allows for improved J-V characteristics and higher spectral response resulting in an enhanced device performance of 5.3% compared to 4.2% when using 525 degrees C and 480 degrees C, respectively. Both absorber layers present an optical band gap energy of 1.47 eV. Furthermore, higher annealing temperature has beneficial effect to the CZGSe-based devices without losses in total transmitted light because of the higher diffuse transmittance. This work shows first promising semi-transparent CZGSe-based solar cells possibly open up new routes of applications.

Keywords

(semi)-transparent solar cellsAnnealing temperatureBack contactCu2zngese4ImpactKesteriteNa

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-MATERIALS due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Condensed Matter Physics. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-08-05:

  • WoS: 2
  • Scopus: 5

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-08-05:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 14.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 15 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/698541

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Germany.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (RUIZ PERONA, ANDREA) and Last Author (CABALLERO MESA, ANA RAQUEL).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been CABALLERO MESA, ANA RAQUEL.