High-Efficiency Double Absorber PbS/CdS Heterojunction Solar Cells by Enhanced Charge Collection Using a ZnO Nanorod Array.

The device architecture of solar cells remains critical in achieving high photoconversion efficiency while affordable and scalable routes are being explored. Here, we demonstrate a scalable, low cost, and less toxic synthesis route for the fabrication of PbS/CdS thin-film solar cells with efficiencies as high as ∼5.59%, which is the highest efficiency obtained so far for the PbS-based solar cells not involving quantum dots.

Effect of band-aligned double absorber layers on photovoltaic characteristics of chemical bath deposited PbS/CdS thin film solar cells.

Here we report the highest energy conversion efficiency and good stability of PbS thin film-based depleted heterojunction solar cells, not involving PbS quantum dots. The PbS thin films were grown by the low cost chemical bath deposition (CBD) process at relatively low temperatures. Compared to the quantum dot solar cells which require critical and multistep complex procedures for surface passivation, the present approach, leveraging the facile modulation of the optoelectronic properties of the PbS films by the CBD process, offers a simpler route for optimization of PbS-based solar cells.

Tensile stress-dependent fracture behavior and its influences on photovoltaic characteristics in flexible PbS/CdS thin-film solar cells.

Tensile stress-dependent fracture behavior of flexible PbS/CdS heterojunction thin-film solar cells on indium tin oxide-coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates is investigated in terms of the variations of fracture parameters with applied strains and their influences on photovoltaic properties. The PbS absorber layer that exhibits only mechanical cracks within the applied strain range from ∼0.67 to 1.