A transparent photovoltaic device based on Cu2O/ZnO/AZO for see-through applications

• Published in: Materials letters 2019-11, Vol.255, p.126517, Article 126517
• Main Authors: Kumar Rana, Amit, Ban, Dong-Kyun, Patel, Malkeshkumar, Yun, Ju-Hyung, Kim, Joondong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer architecture; Copper oxides; Energy harvesting; Heterojunctions; Materials science; Metal oxide; Photovoltaic; Photovoltaic cells; Skyscrapers; Sputtering; Thin film; Transparent; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2019.126517

•Transparent photovoltaic (TPV) device based on metal oxide heterojunctions.•TPV has high transparency (∼80%) in the visible region.•TPV shows high VOC (0.52 V) with a conversion efficiency of ∼0.70%. The present study shows the energy harvesting ability from a transparent Cu2O/ZnO/AZO heterojunctions device. Particularly, the electron selective AZO/ZnO and hole selective Cu2O enables the formation of photovoltaic behaviour with a VOC of 0.52 V. It is demonstrated that even with high transparency of the photoactive oxide layers of ∼80%, the device shows the maximum conversion efficiency of ∼0.70% depending on the incoming photon intensity. In addition, wavelength-selective performance of the device demonstrates a maximum responsivity of 2.13 A/W towards 400 nm. This transparent device architecture study will serve the foundation to be useful to design advanced see-through devices beyond the energy generation entities to be applied in power generating windows and skyscrapers.