Improvement of p-CuO/n-Si Heterojunction Solar Cell Performance Through Nitrogen Plasma Treatment

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials 2021-04, Vol.50 (4), p.1720-1725
• Main Authors: Abzal, Shaik Md, Dash, Jatis Kumar, Mahata, Chandreswar, Guchhait, Asim, Kumar, Avishek, Ramakrishna, Seeram, Dalapati, Goutam Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asian Consortium ACCMS–International Conference ICMG 2020; Asian Consortium AC–CMS International Conference ICMG 2020; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Circuits; Copper oxides; Electrical resistivity; Electronics and Microelectronics; Heterojunctions; Instrumentation; Magnetron sputtering; Materials Science; Nitrogen; Nitrogen plasma; Open circuit voltage; Optical and Electronic Materials; Photoelectric effect; Photoelectric emission; Photoelectrons; Photovoltaic cells; Radio frequency; Short circuit currents; Silicon substrates; Solar cells; Solid State Physics; Thin films
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-020-08593-x

p -type cupric oxide ( p -CuO) thin films on n -type silicon substrates were grown to make p -CuO/ n -Si heterojunctions. The CuO deposition on Si was carried out using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering followed by rapid thermal annealing at 350°C. Plasma nitridation was used to incorporate nitrogen (N) for improving the electrical conductivity of the CuO thin films. The crystalline structure and surface composition of RF-sputtered CuO were characterized by x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was observed that the introduction of nitrogen in CuO improves the photovoltaic properties, such as the open-circuit voltage, short circuit current, and the photocurrent of the p -CuO- n -Si heterojunction.