Prospects of CZTS solar cells from the perspective of material properties, fabrication methods and current research challenges

The quest for green energy to meet the world's ever growing energy demand has prompted the scientific community to focus their research activities on the renewable energy field. Among the candidates, thin film solar cells especially those using inexpensive, abundant and nontoxic material copper-zinc-tin-sulphide (CZTS) based solar cell is a promising type of solar which can be realized as a high efficiency and low cost solution for electricity generation. This review paper addresses the material properties, fabrication methods and current research challenges to achieve high efficiency and low cost CZTS thin film solar cells. Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) is a prominent low cost absorber layer to be used as a substitute of CIGS absorber layer in the thin film solar cells. CZTS can lead to production of nontoxic thin film solar cells with high absorption coefficient. The scope of this review aims to evaluate the basics of CZTS solar cells fabricated by a co-evaporation technique which leads to the highest conversion efficiency so far.