Transmission electron microscopy analysis of secondary phases in Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film solar cells

ABSTRACTSecondary phases are likely to occur in the Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) films since the CZTS is thermodynamically stable in only a narrow region of the phase diagram. The CZTS solar cell performance can be influenced by the existence and precipitated position of secondary phases. Therefore, locally investigate the distribution of secondary phases is important to further improve CZTS solar cell efficiency. In this study, two different kinds of transmission electron microscopy imaging techniques, bright field scanning TEM image (BF-STEM) and High-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) image, are applied to analyze the distribution of secondary phases. Due to the atomic number differences between CZTS and secondary phases, secondary phases are evident in the HAADF images. Therefore, HAADF image is a more powerful and convenient method to analyze the secondary phases than the BF-STEM image.

Surface Channeling in Aberration-Corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy of Nanostructures

The aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope can provide information on nanostructures with sub-Ångström image resolution. The relatively intuitive interpretation of high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) imaging technique makes it a popular tool to image a variety of samples and finds broad applications to characterizing nanostructures, especially when combined with electron energy-loss spectroscopy and X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy techniques. To quantitatively interpret HAADF images, however, requires full understanding of the various types of signals that contribute to the HAADF image contrast. We have observed significant intensity enhancement in HAADF images, and large expansion of lattice spacings, of surface atoms of atomically flat ZnO surfaces. The surface-resonance channeling effect, one of the electron-beam channeling phenomena in crystalline nanostructures, was invoked to explain the observed image intensity enhancement. A better understanding of the effect of electron beam channeling along surfaces or interfaces on HAADF image contrast may have implications for quantifying HAADF images and may provide new routes to utilize the channeling phenomenon to study surface structures with sub-Ångström spatial resolution.