Investigation of molar concentration effect on structural, optical, electrical, and photovoltaic properties of spray‐coated Cu₂O thin films

Abstract

High quality copper oxide thin films were prepared by nebulizer spray pyrolysis technique using different concentrations of copper precursor solution. Concentration-dependent structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of the prepared films are discussed. X-ray diffraction studies done for the samples confirmed that the deposited films are in Cu 2 O phase with polycrystalline cubic structure. Atomic force microscopy analysis revealed that all the films are composed of nano sheet shaped grains covering the substrate surface. Optical studies done on the samples showed band gap values 2.42, 2.31, and 2.02 eV for the solution concentration 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 M, respectively. Photoluminescence spectral analysis showed the emission band at 620 nm confirming the formation of cuprous oxide. Electrical analysis of the films showed p-type conductivity with a low resistivity 2.19 × 10 2 Ω.cm and high carrier concentration 16.76 × 10 15 cm −3 for the molar concentration 0.1 M. In this work, Cu 2 O/ZnO heterojunctions were also prepared, and solar cell properties were studied; they were found to show increased open circuit voltage and short circuit current for higher copper concentration.

Optimizing the structure and optoelectronic properties of cuprite thin films via a plasma focus device as a solar cell absorber layer

“…2(b), are included for illustrative purposes. Key structural parameters, including dislocation density (δ), the number of crystallites per unit volume (N c ), crystallite size (D), and lattice strain (ε), were determined and are presented in Table 2 using the following equations: 45,46…”

“…2(b), are included for illustrative purposes. Key structural parameters, including dislocation density ( δ ), the number of crystallites per unit volume ( N c ), crystallite size ( D ), and lattice strain ( ε ), were determined and are presented in Table 2 using the following equations: 45,46 In this context, λ represents the X-ray wavelength, β stands for the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the diffraction peak, θ denotes the diffraction angle, and d is the film thickness. The observed trend in the crystallite size of the Cu 2 O film indicates a reduction from 28 ± 2 nm to 21 ± 1 nm as the number of plasma focus shots increases (see Fig.…”

Ca-Doped Copper (I) Oxide Deposited via the Spray Coating Technique for Heterojunction Solar Cell Application

“…What is more, copper oxide may also be used as a hole transporting layer (HTL) in perovskite solar cells [11][12][13][14], which seems to be very promising approach among many suggested methods [15][16][17][18][19][20] to improve perovskite stability. There are many methods used in copper oxide manufacturing, as magnetron sputtering [21], electrochemical deposition [22], E-beam evaporation [23], thermal oxidation [24], a microwave-assisted chemical bath [25], CVD [26], ALD [27] and spray coating [28][29][30][31]. However, the tricky manufacturing process of single Cu 2 O and the ease of the appearance of CuO cause lattice defects which degrade charge carriers' mobility and increase layer resistivity.…”

Surface roughness and electrical conductivity of the SnO2 ultra‐thin layers investigated by X‐ray reflectivity

“…The significant influence of the precursor composition (PC) on the structure and properties of the thin films by spray pyrolysis technique has already been investigated through atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence spectral analyses 7 . The surface morphology of the zinc‐doped SnO 2 thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis was studied, and a reduction in surface roughness was deduced with the addition of Zn in the starting solution 8 .…”