Impact of substrate type on the surface and properties of electrodeposited Cu2O nanostructure films as an absorber layer for solar cell applications (original) (raw)
Related papers
2013
Copper (I) oxide (Cu 2 O) is a direct band gap semiconductor with p-type conductivity and is a potential candidate for multi-junction solar cells. In this work, incoherent light source based photoassisted metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) was used to deposit high quality Cu 2 O thin films on n-type ,100. silicon and quartz substrates. X-ray diffraction studies reveal that crystalline Cu 2 O is deposited. UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy results indicated a band gap of 2.44 eV for Cu 2 O thin films. Transmission electron spectroscopy results show that the Cu 2 O film grows in the form of three-dimensional islands composed of smaller nanocrystalline grains in the range of 10-20 nm. I-V measurements indicate that the Cu 2 O/n-Si device fabricated using the MOCVD process has a lower dark current density than other devices reported in the literature.
New approach for generating Cu2O/TiO2 composite films for solar cell applications
Materials Letters, 2012
In this paper, Cu 2 O was studied as a photon absorber for solar cell applications. Cu 2 O was deposited on a TiO 2 film using the electrochemical deposition (ECD) method. Based on the physical appearance of the samples, the particles of Cu 2 O seemed to penetrate the TiO 2 film and were primarily deposited near the TiO 2 /substrate interface rather than on the TiO 2 film surface. This method could be one way to generate a p-n bulk-heterojunction interface. The film was confirmed to be a Cu 2 O/TiO 2 composite via X-ray diffraction measurements. The top electrode was formed by evaporating indium for I-V characterization, and the fabricated cell showed photovoltaic properties.
A B S T R A C T This article was devoted to synthesis nanocrystalline Cu 2 O thin films using the spray pyrolysis technique, besides to study the influence of their solution molarity on crystallography, microstructure and crystal defects. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that as-deposited Cu 2 O films have the amorphous nature but after their annealing at 550 K for two hours they turned to have the polycrystalline cubic structure with a preferred orientation in < 111 > direction. Williamson-Hall and Scherrer methods were utilized to determine the microstructural parameters using line profile analysis of X-ray diffraction. Obtained results revealed that when the solution molarity was increased from 0.01 to 0.12 M the crystallite size increased from 28.75 to 35.12 and from 16.92 to 26.22 nm, while the microstrain was found to decrease from 2.171 × 10 −3 to 0.896 × 10 −3 and from 5.321 × 10 −3 to 3.699 × 10 −3 according to Williamson-Hall and Scherrer methods, respectively. Moreover, increasing of the solution molarity of prepared Cu 2 O film samples led to reduce the crystal defects, where, the lattice strain, the total internal stress, the interfacial tension and the elastic strain energy were found to decrease. Furthermore, increasing of the solution molarity led also to increase the X-ray mass-density from 6.081 to 6.099 g/cm 3 .
Cu 2 O Photosensitive Thin Films for Solar Cell Application
Among copper oxides, Cu 2 O is intensively studied due to its high optical absorption coefficient and relatively good electrical properties. Copper oxide thin films properties depend on the deposition method as an effect of detailed arrangement of Cu and O atoms that induce different physical properties. Cu 2 O is a p-type semiconductor having a band gap sufficiently close to the optimal band gap under AM1.5 radiation spectrum, which makes it an attractive material for photovoltaic applications and solar cells. The structural and morphological properties of deposited thin films were investigated by S canning Electron Microscopy (S EM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The thin film thickness and optical constants were determined by S pectroscopic Ellipsometry (S E). The purpose of the paper was to study the technological possibilities of preparing high quality Cu 2 O thin films, used in photovoltaic applications. The sputter-deposited Cu 2 O thin films presented in this work show g...
Journal of Human, Earth, and Future, 2021
This study focused on the copper (I) oxide (Cu2O) that serves as an absorber layer, owing to its excellent optical properties, while titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a well-known material that has superior properties in solar cell development. In this work, the TiO2 nanorods layer was synthesised on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate by a facile hydrothermal method followed by stacking the Cu2O layer using a low-cost electrodeposition method at different deposition times. Prior to deposition, a cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurement was performed, and the result showed that Cu2O films were successfully grown on the TiO2 nanorods layer with high uniformity. The crystallinity of the Cu2O/TiO2 film was increased when the deposition time was elevated. The strongest diffraction peak was detected in the sample deposited for 90 minutes. FE-SEM images revealed the formation of the pyramidal structure of Cu2O on the TiO2nanorod layer. The optical properties showed that the samples depos...
Structural and Electrical Analysis of Cu 2 O Layers for Solar Cell Application
2018
In this work the structural and electrical properties of the Cu2O layer of a metal oxide solar cell were investigated. Cu2O films were synthesized by reactive direct current magnetron sputtering on quartz substrates and characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Hall effect measurements. The grain size and surface roughness have important implications for the optical and electrical performance of the Cu2O layer. The SEM analysis revealed an increase in grain size in the sample treated with rapid thermal annealing at 900 0C. AFM analysis shows that the high thermal annealing increases the surface roughness by a factor of 10. The electrical properties of the Cu2O film are enhanced after annealing at 900 °C.
Controlled growth of Cu2O thin films by electrodeposition approach
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, 2017
Thin films of Cu 2 O comprised of wavelike surface characteristic of compact nanoparticles were synthesized using a facile and cost-effective electrodeposition approach. The distinct surface morphologies with well-aligned crystal orientation were obtained through the controlled electrodeposition parameters. The high resolution AFM combined with the peak force AFM images mapped the nanomechanical and chemical properties of the Cu 2 O nanostructured films. The structural, optical, and compositional analyses of the as-deposited thin films show bulk Cu 2 O material. The electrodeposition approach could proceed non-intermittently under ambient conditions, and provides a facile and economic way of depositing thin films of Cu 2 O with wavelike characteristics. The photoluminescence lifetime was found be very short in the range of 0.8-1.3 ns for Cu 2 O films. The Mott-Schottky measurement exhibited p-type conductivity and carrier density was found to bẽ 2×10 18. The observed photoluminescence lifetimes, and carrier densities could help implementing the Cu 2 O films as an efficient hole-conducting, and photoelectrode materials in solar cells and water splitting devices.
A Review: Synthesis, Characterization and Cell Performance of Cu2O Based Material for Solar Cells
Low-cost thin film oxide/oxide heterojunctionsbased photovoltaic solar cellsare one of the alternatives to silicon solar cells, among the potential photovoltaic devices based on semiconductor oxides.Cuprous oxide is a potential material for the fabrication of low cost solar cells for terrestrial application. In this article, firstly, we reviewed cuprous oxide Crystal structure, Band structure, different properties of cuprous oxide material such as electrical and transport properties and photoluminescence.Then we discuss in detail the synthesis techniques for the production of copper oxide such as Thermal Oxidation, Anodic Oxidation, Electrodeposition, Sputtering, Chemical vapor deposition etc. Latter on a detailed survey on the previous work so far carried out on Cu2O based solar cells is presented.Thefabrication and cellperformance of based Solar Cells is also discussed.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2012
We present a systematic study on the effects of electrodeposition parameters on the photoelectrochemical properties of Cu 2 O. The influence of deposition variables (temperature, pH, and deposition current density) on conductivity has been widely explored in the past for this semiconductor, but the optimization of the electrodeposition process for the photoelectrochemical response in aqueous solutions under AM 1.5 illumination has received far less attention. In this work, we analyze the photoactivity of Cu 2 O films deposited at different conditions and correlate the photoresponse to morphology, film orientation, and electrical properties. The photoelectrochemical response was measured by linear sweep voltammetry under chopped simulated AM 1.5 illumination. The highest photocurrent obtained was −2.4 mA cm −2 at 0.25 V vs RHE for a film thickness of 1.3 μm. This is the highest reported value reached so far for this material in an aqueous electrolyte under AM 1.5 illumination. The optical and electrical properties of the most photoactive electrode were investigated by UV−vis spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance, while the minority carrier lifetime and diffusion length were measured by optical-pump THz-probe spectroscopy.
Chemical Engineering Journal
We propose a simple way to increase incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE, Y) for electrodeposited p-type Cu 2 O films through addition of Eu(III) to the electrodeposition bath. This is the first reported enhancement of photocurrent for Cu 2 O modified with a rare-earth element. Our study is based on hypothesis that a large ionic radius of Eu(III) promotes its precipitation in form of inclusions of another phase, which act as getter centers leading to purification of host material from detrimental impurities and, correspondingly, to increase in lifetime of non-equilibrium charge carriers. SEM, EDX and XRD analyses indicate that addition of Eu (III) results in some increase of Cu 2 O crystallite size and growth of a secondary Eu containing phase without changing the Cu 2 O lattice parameters. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy indicates invariance of acceptor concentration and flat band potential for Eu modified films. Remarkable increase of charge carriers' lifetime,