Band alignment of SnS/Zn(O,S) heterojunctions in SnS thin film solar cells

Band alignment is critical to the performance of heterojunction thin film solar cells. In this letter, we report band alignment studies of SnS/Zn(O,S) heterojunctions with various compositions of Zn(O,S). Valence band offsets (VBOs) are measured by femtosecond laser pump/probe ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (fs-UPS) from which conduction band offsets (CBOs) are calculated by combining with band gaps obtained by optical transmission/reflection measurements. The SnS/Zn(O,S) heterojunctions with S/Zn ratios of 0.37 and 0.50 have desirable small positive CBOs, while a ratio of 0.64 produces an undesirable large positive CBO. The results are consistent with the device performance of SnS/Zn(O,S) solar cells. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.