Properties of epitaxially grown In2S3:V thin films for intermediate band solar cell application

Indium sulfide hyperdoped with vanadium has been predicted to be a promising material to realize an intermediate band (IB) solar cell. Using co-evaporation of the elements we grew In
₂
S
₃
:V on (111)-oriented p-Si substrates. As transparent top electrode n-ZnO:Al is used to realize heterostructure pin-solar cells. Investigations of structural properties reveal epitaxial growth independent of the vanadium doping content. We further characterize pin-heterostructure solar cells by current-voltage characteristics in the dark and under illumination. We do not observe an increase of short circuit current density for V-doped samples, which indicates that the IB is fully occupied.