As a group of promising semiconductor materials, metal chalcogenides in thin film form have been widely used in electronics and optoelectronics applications, such as solar cell devices and photon sensors. Unfortunately, the film size and product throughput are limited by the current vacuum-based thin film deposition techniques. Solution-based thin film deposition could archive a continuous large area thin film deposition of chalcogenides. Also by eliminating the vacuum requirement, the total process cost can be significantly reduced.
Here three different routes to deposit the chalcogenide thin film have been studied: from solution-based deposited metal oxide film, from electroplated metal thin film, and from bulk chalcogenide powder.
By a hydrogen-assisted selenization process, an oxide thin film of copper, indium, and gallium has been successfully transited to CuIn₁₋ₓGaₓSe₂ chalcopyrite thin film, and the solar deviceshave been fabricated based on this p-type chalcogenide material. In a similar way, a metal stack of copper, zinc, and tin has been converted to Cu₂ZnSnS₄ kesterite thin film solar cell material. The last one, powder molybdenum disulfide is transformed into thin film through a dimensional reduction process with the help of microreactor design and simulation.
This research also includes the fabrication of photovoltaic devices, thin film transistors, and their characterizations in both structural and electronic properties.
There are advantages and disadvantages from each of these solution-based deposition techniques, and by selecting one of these methods, it could archive a generic process route for a large range of metal chalcogenide thin film deposition