Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2011
Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), an emerging p-type quaternary chalcogenide, offers many potential advantages as an absorber material. Using factorial design of experiments approach, single stage Cu-Zn-Sn co-electrodeposition from aqueous solution followed by annealing is reported in this paper. Factorial experiments facilitate to study the effects of each factor on the response variable as well as effects of interactions between individual factors on the response variable. Selected factors include concentration of individual ionic species, time of sulfurization and amount of complexing agent, whereas CZTS phase, band gap, carrier concentration, open circuit voltage, and morphological characteristics are the response variables. A model has been developed to show and predict the domain for the best possible factors for CZTS based device fabrication.