Fabrication of Pure Sb₂S₃ and Fe (2.5%): Sb₂S₃ Thin Films and Investigation Their Properties

Pure Sb₂S₃ and Fe (2.5%): Sb₂S₃ thin films were synthesized on Zn₂SnO₄ coated with FTO conductive glasses using chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns obtained show that both thin films have an orthorhombic structure. Although the crystal structure of the two thin films was the same, the crystalline size of Fe (2.5%): Sb₂S₃ thin film (51.15 nm) was found to be smaller than that of pure Sb₂S₃ (52.89 nm). The effect of Fe-doped metal on crystal size of Sb₂S₃ was observed with this result. Another important observation is that the energy band gap of Fe (2.5%): Sb₂S₃ thin film (2.00 eV) is larger than that of pure Sb₂S₃ (1.89 eV). The photovoltaic properties of the synthesized thin films were examined by applying both incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) and current density (J)–voltage (V) measurements. The obtained IPCE(%) values at 600 nm for pure Sb₂S₃ and Fe (2.5%): Sb₂S₃ thin films are 30.29 and 49.06, respectively. Using the J–V curves, the calculated η (%) values for pure Sb₂S₃ and Fe (2.5%): Sb₂S₃ thin films are 3.95 and 5.44, respectively. Based on the data obtained from both measurements, it was observed that the Fe dopant significantly enhance the performance of the Sb₂S₃-based solar cell devices.