Structural, Vibrational, and Electronic Properties of Trigonal Cu2SrSnS4 Photovoltaic Absorber from First-Principles Calculations

Abstract

In the search for sustainable alternate absorber materials for photovoltaic applications, the family of chalcogenides provide a promising solution. While the most commonly studied Cu2ZnSnS4 based kesterite solar cells seem to have intrinsic drawbacks such as low-efficiency arising from defects and anti-disorder in the Cu-Zn sites, substituting other elements in the Cu/Zn sites have been considered. In this direction, Cu2(Ba,Sr) SnS4 provide an interesting alternative as they possibly help limit the intrinsic anti-site disorder in the system which is of primary concern with regard to efficiency loses. In this study, we report the structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of trigonal structured Cu2SrSnS4 quarternary system computed from first-principles density functional theory paving way for further characterization and analysis within this class of materials. Material Science Research India www.materialsciencejournal.org ISSN: 0973-3469, Vol.17, (Special Issue) 2020, Pg. 07-12 CONTACT Sriram Poyyapakkam Ramkumar srirampr.nitt@gmail.com Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Merced, Merced, USA. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Oriental Scientific Publishing Company This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/msri.17.special-issue1.03 Article History Received: 31 May 2020 Accepted: 17 July 2020