Cu2O; metal oxide; numerical simulation; TiO2 buffer layer; transparent solar cell; Aluminum-doped zinc oxide; Carrier defects; Defects density; Device parameters; Metal-oxide; Numerical modeling and analysis; Optimal performance; P-type; Transparent solar cells; Engineering (all)
Abstract :
[en] In the present work, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is sandwiched as a buffer layer between n-type aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and p-type cuprous oxide (Cu2O), increasing the efficiency of metal oxide-based solar cells. The effects of the device parameters such as thicknesses, carrier concentrations, and defect densities were investigated by numerical simulation to obtain optimal performance of Cu2O-based solar cells. Our findings reveal that by the incorporation of TiO2 thin film, the efficiency of the solar cell increases remarkably from 2.54 to 5.02 %. The optimal thicknesses of the Cu2O and TiO2 layers are in the range of 10 μm and 0.1 μm, respectively. We obtained optimal photo-electric conversion efficiency of 10.17 % and open-circuit voltage of 1.35 V while achieving 8.90 mA/cm2 short-circuit current density and 84.12 % fill factor, using structure parameters of 0.2 μm AZO, 0.1 μm TiO2 and 10 μm Cu2O with optimal acceptor-type dopant density in Cu2O of 1E17 cm−3 and donor-type dopant density in TiO2 of 1E18 cm−3.
Disciplines :
Physics
Author, co-author :
Sliti, Naama ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Complex and Entangled Systems from Atoms to Materials (CESAM) ; CESAM | Q-MAT | Solid State Physics, Interfaces and Nanostructures, Institute of Physics B5a, Liege, Belgium ; Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Tunis, Université de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
Touihri, Saâd ; Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Tunis, Université de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
Nguyen, Ngoc Duy ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de physique > Physique des solides, interfaces et nanostructures ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Complex and Entangled Systems from Atoms to Materials (CESAM)
Language :
English
Title :
Numerical modeling and analysis of AZO/Cu2O transparent solar cell with a TiO2 buffer layer
F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE] National Higher Engineering School of Tunis [TN] ARES - Académie de Recherche et d'Enseignement Supérieur [BE]
Funding text :
The authors would like to thank Prof Stephen J Fonash and his co-worker at the Pennsylvania State University to make available the AMPS-1D program employed in this document.
Selvi K T Sagadevan S 2022 Recent developments in optoelectronic and photonic applications of metal oxides Metal Oxides for Optoelectronics and Optics-Based Medical Applications Metal Oxides Sagadevan S Amsterdam Elsevier 33 57 pp 33-57 10.1016/B978-0-323-85824-3.00013-0
Rühle S Anderson A Y Barad H-N Kupfer B Bouhadana Y Rosh-Hodesh E Zaban A 2012 All-oxide photovoltaics J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 3 3755 3764 3755-64 10.1021/jz3017039
Wadia C Alivisatos A P Kammen D M 2009 Materials availability expands the opportunity for large-scale photovoltaics deployment Environ. Sci. Technol. 43 2072 2077 2072-7 10.1021/es8019534
Akimoto K Ishizuka S Yanagita M Nawa Y Paul G K Sakurai T 2006 Thin film deposition of Cu2O and application for solar cells Sol. Energy 80 715 722 715-22 10.1016/j.solener.2005.10.012
Chen L-C 2013 Review of preparation and optoelectronic characteristics of Cu2O-based solar cells with nanostructure Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 16 1172 1185 1172-85 10.1016/j.mssp.2012.12.028
Ghijsen J Tjeng L H Van Elp J Eskes H Westerink J Sawatzky G A Czyzyk M T 1988 Electronic structure of Cu2O and CuO Phys. Rev. B 38 11322 11330 11322-30 10.1103/PhysRevB.38.11322
Noda S Shima H Akinaga H 2013 Cu2O/ZnO heterojunction solar cells fabricated by magnetron-sputter deposition method films using sintered ceramics targets J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 433 012027 10.1088/1742-6596/433/1/012027
Sekkat A Nguyen V H Masse de la Huerta C Rapenne L Bellet D Kaminski-Cachopo A Chichignoud G Muñoz-Rojas D 2021 Open-air printing of Cu2O thin films with high hole mobility for semitransparent solar harvesters Commun. Mater. 2 1 10 1-10 10.1038/s43246-021-00181-8
Zhao C Pan J Wang B Dong Z Jiang Z Wang J Song C Zheng Y Li C 2018 Photoelectric conversion enhancement of Ag modified p-type Cu2O/n-type ZnO transparent heterojunction device J. Mater. Sci., Mater. Electron. 29 20485 20492 20485-92 10.1007/s10854-018-0183-x
Ievskaya Y Hoye R L Z Sadhanala A Musselman K P MacManus-Driscoll J L 2015 Fabrication of ZnO/Cu2O heterojunctions in atmospheric conditions: Improved interface quality and solar cell performance Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 135 43 48 43-8 10.1016/j.solmat.2014.09.018
Miyata T Watanabe K Tokunaga H Minami T 2019 Photovoltaic properties of Cu2O-based heterojunction solar cells using n-type oxide semiconductor nano thin films prepared by low damage magnetron sputtering method J. Semicond. 40 032701 10.1088/1674-4926/40/3/032701
Meillaud F Shah A Droz C Vallat-Sauvain E Miazza C 2006 Efficiency limits for single-junction and tandem solar cells Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 90 2952 2959 2952-9 10.1016/j.solmat.2006.06.002
Minami T Nishi Y Miyata T 2013 High-efficiency Cu2O-based heterojunction solar cells fabricated using a Ga2O3 thin film as N-type layer Appl. Phys. Express 6 044101 10.7567/APEX.6.044101
Yang T Liu X Ding Y Zhao S Yin N 2018 Nondestructive interface construction for CdS-buffered ZnO nanorod/Cu2O composite structure solar cells J. Nanoparticle Res. 20 207 10.1007/s11051-018-4313-4
Minami T Miyata T Nishi Y 2014 Cu2O-based heterojunction solar cells with an Al-doped ZnO/oxide semiconductor/thermally oxidized Cu2O sheet structure Sol. Energy 105 206 217 206-17 10.1016/j.solener.2014.03.036
Fentahun D A Tyagi A Kar K K 2021 Numerically investigating the AZO/Cu2O heterojunction solar cell using ZnO/CdS buffer layer Optik 228 166228 10.1016/j.ijleo.2020.166228
Toghyani Rizi M Shahrokh Abadi M H Ghaneii M 2018 Two dimensional modeling of Cu2O heterojunction solar cells based-on β-Ga2O3 buffer Optik 155 121 132 121-32 10.1016/j.ijleo.2017.11.028
Lahmar H Azizi A Schmerber G Dinia A 2016 Effect of the thickness of the ZnO buffer layer on the properties of electrodeposited p-Cu 2 O/n-ZnO/n-AZO heterojunctions RSC Adv. 6 68663 68674 68663-74 10.1039/C6RA04834J
Eom K Lee D Kim S Seo H 2018 Modified band alignment effect in ZnO/Cu2O heterojunction solar cells via Cs2O buffer insertion J. Phys. Appl. Phys. 51 055101 10.1088/1361-6463/aaa0b6
Naceur K Tibermacine T Mehiri F Boumaaraf R Labed M Meftah A Meftah A Sengouga N 2021 Study and optimization of Cu2O/AZO hetero-junction solar cell with different buffer layers Opt. Mater. 115 111060 10.1016/j.optmat.2021.111060
Sawicka-Chudy P Sibiński M Rybak-Wilusz E Cholewa M Wisz G Yavorskyi R 2020 Review of the development of copper oxides with titanium dioxide thin-film solar cells AIP Adv. 10 010701 10.1063/1.5125433
Ishii A Nakamura Y Oikawa I Kamegawa A Takamura H 2015 Low-temperature preparation of high-n TiO2 thin film on glass by pulsed laser deposition Appl. Surf. Sci. 347 528 534 528-34 10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.04.125
Nezar S Saoula N Sali S Faiz M Mekki M Laoufi N A Tabet N 2017 Properties of TiO2 thin films deposited by rf reactive magnetron sputtering on biased substrates Appl. Surf. Sci. 395 172 179 172-9 10.1016/j.apsusc.2016.08.125
Shakir S Abd-ur-Rehman H M Yunus K Iwamoto M Periasamy V 2018 Fabrication of un-doped and magnesium doped TiO2 films by aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition for dye sensitized solar cells J. Alloys Compd. 737 740 747 740-7 10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.12.165
Hasan Ali Md S Islam A T M Haque M D Ferdous Rahman Md K Hossain M Sultana N Touhidul Islam A Z M 2023 Numerical analysis of FeSi2 based solar cell with PEDOT:PSS hole transport layer Mater. Today Commun. 34 105387 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2023.105387
Chevallier C Bose S Hamady S O S Fressengeas N 2021 Numerical investigations of the impact of buffer germanium composition and low cost fabrication of Cu2O on AZO/ZnGeO/Cu2O solar cell performances EPJ Photovolt. 12 3 10.1051/epjpv/2021003
Liu Y Sun Y Rockett A 2012 A new simulation software of solar cells—wxAMPS Adv. Mater. 98 124 128 124-8 10.1016/j.solmat.2011.10.010
Boudour S Bouchama I Hadjab M Laidoudi S 2019 Optimization of defected ZnO/Si/Cu2O heterostructure solar cell Opt. Mater. 98 109433 10.1016/j.optmat.2019.109433
Oyedele S O Aka B 2017 Numerical simulation of varied buffer layer of solar cells based on cigs Model. Numer. Simul. Mater. Sci. 07 33 10.4236/mnsms.2017.73003
Ying M Wen J Zhao Y 2022 Numerical simulation of CuInSe2 solar cells using wxAMPS software Chin. J. Phys. 76 24 34 24-34 10.1016/j.cjph.2021.12.020
Abdelfatah M Ismail W El-Shafai N M El-Shaer A 2020 Effect of thickness, bandgap, and carrier concentration on the basic parameters of Cu2O nanostructures photovoltaics: numerical simulation study Mater. Technol. 0 1 9 1-9
Mostefaoui M Mazari H Khelifi S Bouraiou A Dabou R 2015 Simulation of High efficiency CIGS solar Cells with SCAPS-1D software Energy Procedia 74 736 744 736-44 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.07.809
Oku T Yamada T Fujimoto K Akiyama T 2014 Microstructures and photovoltaic properties of Zn(Al)O/Cu2O-based solar cells prepared by spin-coating and electrodeposition Coatings 4 203 213 203-13 10.3390/coatings4020203
Chua D Kim S B Gordon R 2019 Enhancement of the open circuit voltage of Cu2O/Ga2O3 heterojunction solar cells through the mitigation of interfacial recombination AIP Adv. 9 055203 10.1063/1.5096283
Lee Y S Chua D Brandt R E Siah S C Li J V Mailoa J P Lee S W Gordon R G Buonassisi T 2014 Atomic layer deposited gallium oxide buffer layer enables 1.2 V open-circuit voltage in cuprous oxide solar cells Adv. Mater. 26 4704 4710 4704-10 10.1002/adma.201401054
Green M A 1981 Solar cell fill factors: general graph and empirical expressions Solid State Electron. 24 788 789 788-9 10.1016/0038-1101(81)90062-9
David Prabu R Valanarasu S Ganesh V Shkir M Kathalingam A AlFaify S 2018 Effect of spray pressure on optical, electrical and solar cell efficiency of novel Cu2O thin films Surf. Coat. Technol. 347 164 172 164-72 10.1016/j.surfcoat.2018.04.084
Muñoz-Rojas D Jordan M Yeoh C Marin A T Kursumovic A Dunlop L A Iza D C Chen A Wang H MacManus Driscoll J L 2012 Growth of ∼5 cm2V−1s−1 mobility, p-type Copper(I) oxide (Cu2O) films by fast atmospheric atomic layer deposition (AALD) at 225 °C and below AIP Adv. 2 042179 10.1063/1.4771681
Wu H-J Tomiyama N Nagai H Sato M 2019 Fabrication of a p-type Cu2O thin-film via UV-irradiation of a patternable molecular-precursor film containing Cu(II) complexes J. Cryst. Growth 509 112 117 112-7 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2018.12.036
Sliti N Fourneau E Ratz T Touihri S Nguyen N D 2022 Mg-doped Cu2O thin films with enhanced functional properties grown by magnetron sputtering under optimized pressure conditions Ceram. Int. 48 23748 23754 23748-54 10.1016/j.ceramint.2022.05.028
Khattak Y H Baig F Ullah S Marí B Beg S Ullah H 2018 Numerical modeling baseline for high efficiency (Cu2FeSnS4) CFTS based thin film kesterite solar cell Optik 164 547 555 547-55 10.1016/j.ijleo.2018.03.055
Halme J Vahermaa P Miettunen K Lund P 2010 Device physics of dye solar cells Adv. Mater. 22 E210 E234 E210-34 10.1002/adma.201000726
Rajshekar K Kannadassan D 2021 P-Type Cu2O thin film transistors for active matrix displays: physical modeling and numerical simulation IEEE Access 9 158842 158851 158842-51 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3130999
Scanlon D O Morgan B J Watson G W Walsh A 2009 Acceptor levels in p -type Cu2O : rationalizing theory and experiment Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 096405 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.096405
Rougieux F Sun C Macdonald D 2018 Determining the charge states and capture mechanisms of defects in silicon through accurate recombination analyses: A review Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 187 263 272 263-72 10.1016/j.solmat.2018.07.029
