The semiconducting sulphosalt Wittichenite has been identified as a possible absorber material for thin film photovoltaic devices. It has the chemical formula Cu3BiS3 and its component elements are those of low toxicity and high abundance making it a very attractive prospect for photovoltaic devices.
The copper bismuth sulphur material system is not very well understood and information on it limited to a few small regions. To aid understanding of this system a pseudo-binary phase diagram along the CuS-Bi join of the Cu-Bi-S ternary phase diagram was constructed by making bulk samples of various compositions along the join and analysing them using X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. This join was chosen because is crosses the point at which Cu3BiS3 would be expected to occur due to its stoichiometry. The CuS-Bi phase diagram shows Cu3BiS3 forms across a wide compositional range but is mixed with either bismuth metal or copper sulphides depending on composition.
Films of Cu3BiS3 were made using sputtered copper and bismuth films annealed in a sulphur atmosphere and thermal co- evaporation of copper sulphide and bismuth.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/9927 |
| Date | 02 June 2016 |
| Creators | McCracken, R O |
| Contributors | Lane, D W |
| Source Sets | CRANFIELD1 |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or dissertation, Doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | © Cranfield University, 2015 |
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