Current Photovoltaic Research

Korea Photovoltaic Society (한국태양광발전학회)
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The Influence of Deposition Temperature of ALD n-type Buffer ZnO Layer on Device Characteristics of Electrodeposited Cu2O Thin Film Solar Cells

ALD ZnO 버퍼층 증착 온도가 전착 Cu2O 박막 태양전지 소자 특성에 미치는 영향

  • Cho, Jae Yu (Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Optoelectronics Convergence Center, Chonnam National University) ;
  • Tran, Man Hieu (Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Optoelectronics Convergence Center, Chonnam National University) ;
  • Heo, Jaeyeong (Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Optoelectronics Convergence Center, Chonnam National University)
  • Received : 2018.02.14
  • Accepted : 2018.03.20
  • Published : 2018.03.31
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Abstract

Beside several advantages, the PV power generation as a clean energy source, is still below the supply level due to high power generation cost. Therefore, the interest in fabricating low-cost thin film solar cells is increasing continuously. $Cu_2O$, a low cost photovoltaic material, has a wide direct band gap of ~2.1 eV has along with the high theoretical energy conversion efficiency of about 20%. On the other hand, it has other benefits such as earth-abundance, low cost, non-toxic, high carrier mobility ($100cm^2/Vs$). In spite of these various advantages, the efficiency of $Cu_2O$ based solar cells is still significantly lower than the theoretical limit as reported in several literatures. One of the reasons behind the low efficiency of $Cu_2O$ solar cells can be the formation of CuO layer due to atmospheric surface oxidation of $Cu_2O$ absorber layer. In this work, atomic layer deposition method was used to remove the CuO layer that formed on $Cu_2O$ surface. First, $Cu_2O$ absorber layer was deposited by electrodeposition. On top of it buffer (ZnO) and TCO (AZO) layers were deposited by atomic layer deposition and rf-magnetron sputtering respectively. We fabricated the cells with a change in the deposition temperature of buffer layer ranging between $80^{\circ}C$ to $140^{\circ}C$. Finally, we compared the performance of fabricated solar cells, and studied the influence of buffer layer deposition temperature on $Cu_2O$ based solar cells by J-V and XPS measurements.

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References

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