Toward Mass Production of Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Solar Cells: Scalable Growth of Photovoltaic-Grade Multilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> by Tungsten Selenization
Semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising for high-specific-power photovoltaics due to their desirable band gaps, high absorption coefficients, and ideally dangling-bond-free surfaces. Despite their potential, the majority of TMD solar cells to date are fabricated in a nonscalable fashion, with exfoliated materials, due to the lack of high-quality, large-area, multilayer TMDs. Here, we present the scalable, thickness-tunable synthesis of multilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> films by selenizing prepatterned tungsten with either solid-source selenium at 900 °C or H<sub>2</sub>Se precursors at 650 °C. Both methods yield photovoltaic-grade, wafer-scale WSe<sub>2</sub> films with a layered van der Waals structure and superior characteristics, including charge carrier lifetimes up to 144 ns, over 14× higher than those of any other large-area TMD films previously demonstrated. Simulations show that such carrier lifetimes correspond to ∼22% power conversion efficiency and ∼64 W g<sup>-1</sup> specific power in a packaged solar cell, or ∼3 W g<sup>-1</sup> in a fully packaged solar module. The results of this study could facilitate the mass production of high-efficiency multilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> solar cells at low cost.
Authors
- Joke Hadermann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1756-2566)
- Sarallah Hamtaei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5458-7068)
- Frederick U. Nitta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5852-2698)
- Kathryn M. Neilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1061-2919)
- Sepideh Rahimisheikh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5011-4474)
- Joshua M. Carr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2125-8759)
- Guy Brammertz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1404-7339)
- Jeffrey L. Blackburn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9237-5891)
- Eric Pop (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0436-8534)
- Krishna C. Saraswat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1894-6315)
- Koosha Nassiri Nazif (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3991-6484)
- Bart Vermang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2669-2087)
- Alwin Daus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7461-3756)
- Obadiah G. Reid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0646-3981)
Institutions
- National Laboratory of the Rockies (US)
- University of Antwerp (BE)
- University of Freiburg (DE)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- IMEC (BE)
- Hasselt University (BE)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Nano
- Published
- 2024-08-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c03590
- Citations
- 17
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.99
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Stanford University
- Stanford SystemX Alliance
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Vlaamse regering
- Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy
- Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
- Basic Energy Sciences
- Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory