New Sulfidation Technology, n-Type SnS Thin Films and Solar Cells

・ Safe, Low-Temp, and Impurity-Free Sulfurization Technology
・ Innovative n-Type SnS Thin Films for Next-Gen Solar Cells

Overview

Thin-film solar cells using SnS (tin sulfide) offer the following advantages:
・Free of toxic elements such as Cd and Te.
・Composed of abundant and inexpensive elements (Sn and S).
・Efficient light absorption at a thickness of just 2–3 μm
(compared to ~500 μm for silicon).
・A conversion efficiency of 25.3% has been reported for homo p-n junctions.
However, achieving high-efficiency SnS solar cells with a homo p-n junction requires n-type SnS thin films, which have been technically challenging to fabricate.
In this invention, inventor successfully synthesized n-type SnS thin films for the first time using a novel sulfurization technique based on sulfur plasma. This breakthrough is expected to enable the realization of homojunction SnS solar cells in the future.

Features・Outstandings

Product Application

・Solar cells and photodetectors
・Novel Sulfidation Technology (Next page)

IP Data

IP No.　 ： PCT/JP2021/017400
Inventor ： SUZUKI Issei, KAWANISHI Sakiko, YANAGI Hiroshi
keyword ： Harmless, high-efficient, thin, light, low-cost Solarcell, World’s first n-type SnS thin film

Back ground

Challenges

Technology

Application