A numerical study on delafossite CuFeO₂ as an absorber for efficient and sustainable oxide solar cells

Abstract

This study proposes an oxide solar cell in n-p-p structure. This design uses a p-type delafossite CuFeO2 layer to absorb sunlight, along with n-ZnO to transport electrons and p-NiO to transport holes. The SCAPS-1D modeling software was employed to conduct the relative study on the p-CuFeO2 absorber layer. The optimized thickness, bandgap, and bulk defects tolerance limit of the absorber layer are 700 nm, 1.3 eV, and 1014 cm─3, respectively. The charge carrier’s density in the absorber layer at 1018 cm─3 showed the highest performance. The defects tolerance limit of the interface n-ZnO/CuFeO2 is 1017 cm─3. After optimizing the device FTO/n-ZnO/CuFeO2/p-NiO/Au exhibited a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.93 %, corresponding Voc of 1.10 V, Jsc of 24.95 mA cm−2, and FF of 85.5%. Additionally, this study demonstrates the prospect of CuFeO2 as the active layer in oxide-based solar cell technology.