In-situ investigation of the order-disorder transition in Cu2ZnSnSe4 by optical transmission spectroscopy

Abstract

The existence of disorder is one possible reason for the limited performance of kesterite solar cells. Therefore further knowledge of the order-disorder phase transition, of factors which influence the degree of order and of methods to determine this material property is still required. In this study we investigated the order-disorder transition in the kesterite material Cu2ZnSnSe4 by in-situ optical transmission spectroscopy during heat treatments. We show in-situ results for the temperature dependence of the band gap and its tailing properties. The influence of cooling rates on the phase transition was analyzed as well as the ordering kinetics during annealing at a constant temperature. The critical temperature of the phase transition was determined and the existence of a control temperature range is shown, which allows for controlling the degree of order by the cooling rate within this range. Additionally we performed Raman analysis to link Raman spectra to the degree of order in Cu2ZnSnSe4. A correlation between the intensity ratio of A-modes as well as B-/ E- Raman modes and the degree of order was found.