Physical vapor deposition synthesis of Cu3BiS3 for application in thin film photovoltaics

The development of novel solar absorbers and device configurations that incorporate only materials which are cost effective, abundant, and non-toxic may be required for widespread deployment of photovoltaics. CU3BiS3 (E-g=1.2 eV) has been previously reported to be a suitable solar absorber for use in thin film photovoltaic devices. We have developed a physical vapor deposition synthesis for CU3BiS3, and will employ conibinatorial methods to identify novel device configurations in an effort to produce a device exhibiting sufficient efficiency to capture the interest of the photovoltaics community.