TY - JOUR
T1 - p‐CuO/n‐Si heterojunction solar cells with high open circuit voltage and photocurrent through interfacial engineering
AU - Masudy‐Panah, Saeid
AU - Dalapati, Goutam Kumar
AU - Radhakrishnan, K
AU - Kumar, Avishek
AU - Tan, Hui Ru
AU - Naveen Kumar, Elumalai
AU - Vijila, Chellappan
AU - Tan, Cheng Cheh
AU - Chi, DongZhi
PY - 2015/5
Y1 - 2015/5
N2 - Heterojunction solar cells of p‐type cupric oxide (CuO) and n‐type silicon (Si), p‐CuO/n‐Si, have been fabricated using conventional sputter and rapid thermal annealing techniques. Photovoltaic properties with an open‐circuit voltage (Voc) of 380 mV, short circuit current (Jsc) of 1.2 mA/cm2, and a photocurrent of 2.9 mA/cm2 were observed for the solar cell annealed at 300 °C for 1 min. When the annealing duration was increased, the photocurrent increased, but the Voc was found to reduce because of the degradation of interface quality. An improvement in the Voc resulting to a record value of 509 mV and Jsc of 4 mA/cm2 with a high photocurrent of ~12 mA/cm2 was achieved through interface engineering and controlling the phase transformation of CuO film. X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis have been used to investigate the interface properties and crystal quality of sputter‐deposited CuO thin film. The improvement in Voc is mainly due to the enhancement of crystal quality of CuO thin film and interface properties between p‐CuO and n‐Si substrate. The enhancement of photocurrent is found to be due to the reduction of carrier recombination rate as revealed by transient photovoltage spectroscopy analysis.
AB - Heterojunction solar cells of p‐type cupric oxide (CuO) and n‐type silicon (Si), p‐CuO/n‐Si, have been fabricated using conventional sputter and rapid thermal annealing techniques. Photovoltaic properties with an open‐circuit voltage (Voc) of 380 mV, short circuit current (Jsc) of 1.2 mA/cm2, and a photocurrent of 2.9 mA/cm2 were observed for the solar cell annealed at 300 °C for 1 min. When the annealing duration was increased, the photocurrent increased, but the Voc was found to reduce because of the degradation of interface quality. An improvement in the Voc resulting to a record value of 509 mV and Jsc of 4 mA/cm2 with a high photocurrent of ~12 mA/cm2 was achieved through interface engineering and controlling the phase transformation of CuO film. X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis have been used to investigate the interface properties and crystal quality of sputter‐deposited CuO thin film. The improvement in Voc is mainly due to the enhancement of crystal quality of CuO thin film and interface properties between p‐CuO and n‐Si substrate. The enhancement of photocurrent is found to be due to the reduction of carrier recombination rate as revealed by transient photovoltage spectroscopy analysis.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84927574614&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/pip.2483
DO - 10.1002/pip.2483
M3 - Article
VL - 23
SP - 637
EP - 645
JO - Progress in Photovoltaics: research and applications
JF - Progress in Photovoltaics: research and applications
SN - 1062-7995
IS - 5
ER -