Fabrication of cost-effective FTO/TiO2/CuO/Au heterojunction Solar Cell

Oxide heterostructures have great potentiality in the fabrication of low-cost solar cells. We have done experimental and simulation studies of the heterojunction solar cell using TiO₂ and CuO as n-type and p-type layers, respectively. The thickness and dopant concentration-dependent simulations have shown, the solar cell operates at a maximum efficiency of 19.15% when the thickness of TiO2/CuO layers are chosen 1.4µm/1.2µm, with fluorine-doped tin oxide and gold as anode and cathode, respectively. Based on these simulation results, the solar cell on FTO substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) for the TiO₂ layer and spin coating for the CuO layer is fabricated. We have conducted structural-property correlations of individual layers using XRD, Raman, PL spectroscopy, SEM-EDS, and electrical measurements, e.g. hall measurements, and sheet resistance measurements. Results and analyses, confirm the successful growth of high-quality oxide layers of TiO₂ (rutile and anatase phase) and CuO. The solar cell characterization is performed by the I-V measurements using a standard solar simulator. This facile and cost-effective fabrication of all oxide-based heterojunction solar cells will reduce overall cost and increase performance.