Publication date: 21st July 2025
Sb₂(S,Se)₃ has attracted increasing attention as a photovoltaic absorber material due to its high absorption coefficient, excellent stability, and RoHS-compliant composition. However, current high-efficiency Sb₂(S,Se)₃ solar cells are typically limited to opaque, monofacial configurations, creating a technological gap for tandem integration with silicon solar cells or for use in semi-transparent solar windows. Here, we demonstrate a single-junction, bifacial, and semi-transparent Sb₂(S,Se)₃ solar cell, enabled by employing an indium tin oxide (ITO) back electrode atop a MnS hole-transporting layer (HTL). The ultrathin and fully depleted absorber layer, fabricated via hydrothermal synthesis, facilitates carrier drift rather than diffusion toward the functional layers, significantly enhancing bipolar transport and bifacial absorption. Under AM1.5 illumination, the device achieves an impressive bifaciality of 0.86, despite a slight open-circuit voltage loss caused by the MnS/ITO Schottky junction. To further improve performance, we optimized the Sb₂(S,Se)₃ absorber by introducing a targeted additive into the precursor solution. This strategy promotes more favourable band alignment and effectively suppresses bulk defect formation, thereby enhancing material quality and increasing device efficiency to 10.7%. More systematically investigation of the correlation among transparency, bandgap, and efficiency underscores the significant promise of Sb₂(S,Se)₃ solar cells.
This research was financially supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) (Grant no. 2020/RND014). The authors acknowledge the facilities and the scientific and technical assistance of the Electron Microscope Unit (EMU) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). C.Q. acknowledges University International Postgraduate Award (UIPA) scholarship funded by University of New South Wales. K.S. acknowledges the support from Australian Centre of Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) as a recipient of ACAP Fellowship (RG172864-B). The views expressed herein are of the authors but not of the Australian Government, ARENA, or ARC.
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