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Page 10 of 13 Xia et al. Energy Mater. 2026, 6, 600022

Figure 4. UPS spectrum of (A) control and (B) Zn doping Sb 2 S 3 thin films; (C) schematic band diagram and (D) the summarized PCE of
previous works of Sb 2 S 3 solar cell. UPS: Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy; FTO: fluorine-doped tin oxide; CdS: cadmium sulfide; PCE:
power conversion efficiency.

single-function strategies. For instance, prior approaches to alleviate back-contact issues often relied on
introducing distinct metal oxide buffer layers (e.g., WO , MoO ) primarily for hole transport or energy level
3-x
2
alignment [13,17] , or focused solely on elemental doping (e.g., solution-processed Zn doping) to tailor electrical
properties . While effective, these strategies typically address only one aspect of the complex interfacial
[16]
challenges in Sb S -based devices. Our approach uniquely integrates a diffusion barrier and a dopant source
2 3
into a single sub-nanometer-scale layer, simultaneously tackling phase purity, defect passivation, and energy
level modulation. This synergistic effect is evidenced by the concurrent improvement in N , R , and V .
A
rec
oc
Through the strategic implementation of a ZnO protective layer, we optimized both the Sb O thickness and
3
2
achieved surface Zn-doping in Sb S , culminating in a 7.00%-efficient, fully inorganic carbon-electrode-based
2 3
Sb S solar cell with an FTO/CdS/Sb S /PbS/Carbon/Ag architecture. Statistically compiled literature data
2 3
2 3
[Figure 4D] position this efficiency at the state-of-the-art performance tier for planar Sb S thin-film devices
2 3
{Surpassing the 7% benchmark indicated by the gray dashed line, and the references are presented in