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Fabrication And Characterization Of P-Cuo/N-Si Heterojunction For Solar Cell

Applications

Article · July 2016

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 Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)
ISSN: 2458-9403
Vol. 3 Issue 6, June - 2016

Fabrication And Characterization Of P-Cuo/N-Si

Heterojunction For Solar Cell Applications
Sameer Atta. Makki Hiba M. Ali
Collage of Education for pure science, Ibn Al-Haitham University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
Corresponding author: [email protected]
Abstract—This studies p- CuO / n - Si hete- carried after etching. High purity (99.99%) Cu thin film
rojunction was deposited by high vacuum thermal was deposited on the n-Si substrates by thermal
evaporation of Copper subjected to thermal evaporation system type (Edwards) was used. The
oxidation at 300 oC on silicon. Surface pressure deposition 3.4×10-5 mbar and the thickness
morphology properties of The optical properties of the films 300 nm, then Cu thin film was thermal
concerning the transmission spectra were studies oxidation A thin layer of CuO is formed on a
for prepared thin films. this structure have been chemically deposited Cu thin film through reaction
studied. XRD anaylsis discover that the peak at with atmospheric oxygen during heating by
(𝟏𝟏𝟏-) and (111) plane are take over for the crystal (VECTOREEN model) thermal oven for one hour at
quality of the CuO films. The band gap of CuO 300 °C. During the
films is found to be 1.54 eV. The average grain
heating process, the color of the Cu films changed
size of is measured from AFM analysis is around
from silver-grey at room temperature to a black-brown
14.70 nm. The responsivity photodetector after
color at a temperature of oxidation. The bottom of Si
deposited CuO appear increasing in response.
and above of CuO electrodes is coated with a thick
Keywords—CuO, structure properties, AFM, aluminum layer to measure the electrical properties. It
optical properties, solar cell . is obtained under vacuum of Al wire of high purity
(99.99%).The evaporation process is started at a
1. Introduction pressure of 5x10-6mbar. at the following operation
Solar cell technology for future energy resources condition-:Source Cu Kα radiation of wavelength
has been progressed recently. Silicon is used as the (λ=1.5405 Ȧ), -Current =20mA, Voltage =4kV, -
semiconductor material for conventional solar cells, Scanning speed = 5 cm/min, We can get information
and the cost reduction of the solar cells is one of the about the crystal structure such as phase crystalline,
most important issues. having a relatively low band polycrystalline, amorphous, grain size, and lattice
gap (1.21-1.51) eV Cu oxides such as CuO and Cu2O parameter. Optical transmission measurements were
are one of the candidate materials [1]. The features of performed with (UV/Visible 1800 spectrophotometer).
copper oxide semiconductors are high optical The band gap (Eg) and optical constants of the
absorption and nontoxic and low cost fabrication transparent films were determined from the optical
Copper oxide thin films have attracted much interest transmission spectra (300-1100nm). The shape and
due to their potential applications for solar cells and size of CUO were investigated by using SEM and
gas sensor [2–3] It has been widely used for diverse AFM (AA 3000 Scanning Probe Microscope .The
applications such as heterogeneous catalysts [4-5], spectral responsively of the photodiode was
lithium ion electrode materials [6], high Tc super- measured in the spectral range (400-1100) nm using
conductors [7] and field emission(FE)emitters [8–9]. It a calibrated monochromator.
is also a promising material for fabricating solar cell, 3. Results and discussion
due to its photo- conductive and photo chemical
properties [10-11]. this work, we investigated the XRD pattern for CuO thin films synthesized are
effect of thickness on the properties of copper oxide shown in Figure (1) is contain two main peaks at
thin film prepared by oxidation of thermal vacuum diffraction angle of 35.54, 38.70° corresponds to
evaporated Cu thin films. The films were (11 1̅ ), (111) and respectively of Copper oxides is
characterized using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), observed and compared with the Joint Committee on
X-ray diffraction (XRD ), UV-Vis spectro-photometer . Powder Diffraction Standards the film was
polycrystalline in nature. The monoclinic structure was
2. Experimental matched with the standards peaks (ASTM - Card file
The n-Si layers were fabricated by anodic etching No. 00-005-0661). film [12].
where a n-type silicon n-Si (1- 10 ) Ω .cm , (1×1) cm
dimensions, 0.785 cm2 etched area substrate was
placed in the Teflon etching cell using an admixture of
aqueous hydrogen fluoride (purity 47%) and ethanol
(purity 99.99%), by volume. The sample was anodized
at a current density of 10mA/cm2 and at 15min etching
time. No further chemical or thermal treatment was

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JMESTN42351647 5053
 Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)
ISSN: 2458-9403
Vol. 3 Issue 6, June - 2016

200 Figure (3) shows the band gap of CuO measured

from the plot of the square of (αh)2 versus photon
(111-) energy h where α is the absorption coefficient) by
160 extrapolating the linear part of the curve toward the
Intensity (u.a)

(111)
photon energy axis is found to be 1.54 eV. which is
120 due to the energy band structure and the variation of
density of state with the energy level.
80
0.03

(α hυ) 2 x109 (eV/cm-2)

40 0.03
0.02
0
0.02
20 40 60 80
2Theta (deg) 0.01
0.01
0.00
Fig.1 XRD pattern for CuO thin film.
0 2 4
The crystallite size was calculated by using Debye-
Scherrer’s relation [13]:
photon enegy (eV)
0.9 𝜆
𝐺𝑠 = (1) Fig. 3:(αhν)2 versus optical energy gap of CuO
𝛽 cos 𝜃
thin films.
Where GS is the crystallite size, β the full width at
half maxima, θ is the angle of diffraction, and λ is the Figure (4) reveals the (3-D) AFM images and the
wave- length of X-ray. chart distribution of CuO film. AFM image proves that
the grains are uniformly distributed within the
The strain value  and the dislocation density  scanning area (2000×2000nm) with individual
value can be evaluated by using the relations in columnar grains extending upwards.
equation 2 and 3 [14].
The average grain size of pore is measured from
𝛽 cos 𝜃 AFM analysis using software and is found to be
= (2)
4 around 14.70 nm depending on preparation
1
= (3)
𝐺𝑠 2
The optical energy gap of the CuO film was
calculated from the transmission Figure (2) displays
the transmission as a function of wavelength. It is
observed that maximum transmittance at 350 nm
thickness for wavelength 850 nm show transmission
spectra of CuO thin films is which prepared by thermal
evaporation techniques and deposited on glass
substrate , The date is corrected for glass in UV-
regain ,the transmission is sharply decreases because
of the wide of absorbed particle size .

1
0.8
transmitance

0.6
Fig.4 AFM images of CuO thin films
0.4
Shows Figure a (5) the I-V characteristics for p-
0.2 CuO /n-Si and Shows Figure b(5) The measured
short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, fill factor and
0
Efficiency are 1.4 mA, 1 mV, 40 and 4.9% respectively
350 550 750
950 1150 .All the results relieve that the sandwich structure p-
wavelenght( nm) CuO/n-Si could be used as a solar cell.[15] The
conversion efficiency of the solar cells depends on
Fig .2: Transmission spectra for CuO thin film.
morphology of interfaces in solar cells. A schematic

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JMESTN42351647 5054
 Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)
ISSN: 2458-9403
Vol. 3 Issue 6, June - 2016

microstructure of the present solar cells fabricated by magnetron sputtered copper oxide thin films deposited
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2500
[3] D. M. Jundale • P. B. Joshi • ShashwatiSen and

Current(mA)
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1000 Sci: Mater Electron 23.(2012)1492-1499.
500 [4] J. Switzer, J. Kothari, P. Poizot, S. Nakanishi,
E. Bohannan, Nature 425 (2003) 490.
0 [5] O.A. Chaltykyan, Copper-Catalytic Reactions,
-10 -8 -6 -4-500
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 Consultants Bureau, New York, NY, USA, 1966
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Bais Voltage Kumar, S. Mozumdar, P. Patanjali, Appl. Phys. Lett.
884 (2004) 1180.
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Wang, Nanotechnology 18 (2007) 145506
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Current (µA)

Isc [10] J. Chen, S. Deng, N. Xu,W. Zhang, X.Wen, S.

Yang, Appl. Phys. Lett. 83 (2003) 746.
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4. Conclusions [14] V. Gupta and A. Mansingh, “Influence of Post-

Deposi- tion Annealing on the Structural and Optical
p-CuO/n-Si heterojunction was successfully Properties of Sputtered Zinc Oxide Film,” Journal of
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To increase power conversion efficiency structures of
the solar cells should be optimized.
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