Characterization of CuO/n-Si heterojunction solar cells produced by thermal evaporation

Abstract Copper(II) oxide (CuO) in powder form was evaporated thermally on the front surface of an n-Si (1 0 0) single crystal using a vacuum coating unit. Structural investigation of the deposited CuO film was made using X-ray difraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) techniques. It was determined from the obtained results that the copper oxide films exhibited single-phase CuO properties in a monoclinic crystal structure. Transmittance measurement of the CuO film was performed by a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Band gap energy of the film was determined as 1.74 eV under indirect band gap assumption. Current-voltage (I-V) measurements of the CuO/n-Si heterojunctions were performed under illumination and in the dark to reveal the photovoltaic and electrical properties of the produced samples. From the I-V measurements, it was revealed that the CuO/n-Si heterojunctions produced by thermal evaporation exibit excellent rectifying properties in dark and photovoltaic properties under illumination. Conversion efficiencies of the CuO/n-Si solar cells are comparable to those of CuO/n-Si produced by other methods described in the literature.