Zinc oxide/cuprous(I) oxide-based solar cells prepared by electrodeposition

Abstract

The aim of this research was to fabricate zinc oxide/cuprous(I) oxide-based heterojunction solar cells with the use of electrodeposition methods, and further to investigate their structures and photovoltaic properties. The ZnO and Cu2O were used as n- and p-type semiconductors, respectively, to fabricate photovoltaic devices based on Ag/ZnO/Cu2O/Cu(100) heterojunction structures. The crystallite sizes of ZnO and Cu2O were determined to be 25.4(3) nm and 69.8(6) nm, respectively. It was pointed out that efficiencies of the solar cells can be gradually adjusted, using different thicknesses of Cu2O layers, to achieve values as high as 2.7%. The standard diode model and high device performance provide new insights into the issue, outlining guidelines for high-performance solar cells and suggesting that a metal-n-type semiconductor–p-type semiconductor nanostructure-crystal layered, sandwiched-type architecture is a promising platform to boost the efficiency.