Formation and Characterization of Stable TiO₂/Cu_xO-Based Solar Cells

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Renewable Energy

Background:

• Growing energy demand necessitates efficient solar energy solutions.
• Metal oxide semiconductors (MOS) offer advantages like availability and low cost.
• Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and copper oxides (CuxO) are promising MOS for photovoltaics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail the manufacturing of a complete photovoltaic structure using MOS.
• To characterize the morphology, structure, composition, and photovoltaic parameters of fabricated films.
• To analyze the junction operation based on electrical characteristics.

Main Methods:

• DC magnetron sputtering for film deposition.
• Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for morphological analysis.
• Current-Voltage (I-V) measurements for photovoltaic performance evaluation.

Main Results:

• Uniform film deposition observed via SEM, with conglomerate sizes ranging from 20-530 nm.
• Film thickness varied from 318 to 1654 nm.
• Photovoltaic behavior confirmed, with open-circuit voltage (Voc) up to 300 mV and short-circuit current density (Jsc) up to 7.26 µA/cm³.
• Maximum power conversion efficiency achieved was 0.01%.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully manufactured and characterized MOS-based thin-film solar cells.
• The results demonstrate the potential of TiO2 and CuxO for effective photoconversion.
• Further optimization is needed to improve the efficiency of these photovoltaic devices.