title: An assessment of silver copper sulfides for photovoltaic applications: theoretical and experimental insights.
abstract: As the worldwide demand for energy increases, low-cost solar cells are being looked to as a solution for the future. To attain this, non-toxic earth-abundant materials are crucial, however cell efficiencies for current materials are limited in many cases. In this article, we examine the two silver copper sulfides AgCuS and Ag3CuS2as possible solar absorbers using hybrid density functional theory, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, XPS and Hall effect measurements. We show that both compounds demonstrate promising electronic structures and band gaps for high theoretical efficiency solar cells, based on Shockley-Queisser limits. Detailed analysis of their optical properties, however, indicates that only AgCuS should be of interest for PV applications, with a high theoretical efficiency. From this, we also calculate the band alignment of AgCuS against various buffer layers to aid in future device construction.
authors: University College London , Kathleen Lonsdale Materials Chemistry , Department of Chemistry , 20 Gordon Street , London WC1H 0AJ , UK . Email: d.scanlon@ucl.ac.uk.
authors: Christopher N
authors: CN
authors: Savory
authors: University College London , Kathleen Lonsdale Materials Chemistry , Department of Chemistry , 20 Gordon Street , London WC1H 0AJ , UK . Email: d.scanlon@ucl.ac.uk; Diamond Light Source Ltd. , Diamond House , Harwell Science and Innovation Campus , Didcot , Oxfordshire OX11 0DE , UK.
authors: Alex M
authors: AM
authors: Ganose
authors: University College London , Department of Chemistry , London WC1H 0AJ , UK.
authors: Will
authors: W
authors: Travis
authors: University College London , Department of Chemistry , London WC1H 0AJ , UK.
authors: Ria S
authors: RS
authors: Atri
authors: University College London , Department of Chemistry , London WC1H 0AJ , UK.
authors: Robert G
authors: RG
authors: Palgrave
authors: University College London , Kathleen Lonsdale Materials Chemistry , Department of Chemistry , 20 Gordon Street , London WC1H 0AJ , UK . Email: d.scanlon@ucl.ac.uk; Diamond Light Source Ltd. , Diamond House , Harwell Science and Innovation Campus , Didcot , Oxfordshire OX11 0DE , UK.
authors: David O
authors: DO
authors: Scanlon