The one-dimensional photovoltaic absorber material Sb2S3 requires crystal orientation engineering to enable efficient carrier transport. In this work, we adopted the vapor transport deposition (VTD) method to fabricate vertically aligned Sb2S3 on a CdS buffer layer. Our work shows that such a preferential vertical orientation arises from the sulfur deficit of the CdS surface, which creates a beneficial bonding environment between exposed Cd2+ dangling bonds and S atoms in the Sb2S3 molecules. The CdS/VTD-Sb2S3 interface recombination is suppressed by such properly aligned ribbons at the interface. Compared to typical [120]-oriented Sb2S3 films deposited on CdS by the rapid thermal evaporation (RTE) method, the VTD-Sb2S3 thin film is highly [211]- and [121]-oriented and the performance of the solar cell is increased considerably. Without using any hole transportation layer, a conversion efficiency of 4.73% is achieved with device structure of indium tin oxide (ITO)/CdS/Sb2S3/Au. This work provides a potential way to obtain vertically aligned thin films on different buffer layers.
Keywords: Sb2S3 solar cell; inorganic device; thin film; vapor transport deposition; vertical growth.