Preparation of Cu2O/ZnO Heterojunction Thin Film Solar Cell grown by RF Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Both cuprous oxide (Cu2O) and zinc oxide (ZnO) hold a very important position in the fields of materials science due to great potential in many acoustic, electric and optical applications. Cu2O, a direct-gap semiconductor with band gap energy of 2.0 eV has been regarded as one of the most promising materials for application to photovoltaic cells, especially for the top cell in a tandem structure. The attractiveness of Cu2O and ZnO as photovoltaic material lies in the fact that constituent materials are nontoxic and abundantly available. Polycrystalline p-Cu2O/i-ZnO/n-ZnO heterojunction is grown by RF-magnetron sputtering for the purpose of application to solar cells. We successfully obtain photo response in the deposited thin film p-Cu2O/i-ZnO/n-ZnO. Our efforts are being made to reduce the cost of electricity produced by using solar panels and by making more efficient cells. We are trying to improve of solar cells properties changing the growth temperature. 5000C treated Cu2O are found to more effective electrical properties of p-Cu2O/i-ZnO/n-ZnO heterojunction. Keywords: Cuprous oxide, zinc oxide, solar cell