Study on the Performance of ZnO/CuO Heterojunction Solar Cell Simulation and Experimental

Abstract

Study on the performance of zinc oxide (ZnO) and copper oxide (CuO) based heterojunction solar cell for simulation and home fabrication has been presented in this report. SCAPS-1D simulator has been used for simulation and these simulation results are used to fabricate ZnO/CuO heterojunction solar cell (HJSC) experimentally using very low cost and simple spin coating technique. Simulation has been done at wide range of thickness of window n-ZnO layer, absorber p-CuO layer and concentration of photoactive materials. Employing these results, FTO/ZnO/CuO/Al HJSC were fabricated experimentally using sol-gel spin coating technique. Thereafter, photovoltaic characteristics of the cells were investigated under 1.5AM illumination that demonstrates an open-circuit voltage $(\mathrm{V}_{oc})$ of 1.37 V, short circuit current $(\mathrm{I}_{sc})$ of 2.86 mA, fill factor (FF) of 55% and photoconversion efficiency (PCE) exceeding 1.15 % those were 0.82 V, 14.96 mA/cm2, 52%, and 4.20 % respectively for simulation in where improvement of Voc and FF are noticeable. There is promising performance of home-made spin coated ZnO/CuO HJSC without any selective layer (hole transport and electron transport) and anti-reflection coating in open air. Above results indicates that sol-gel spin coating technique may be an effective and efficient way for fabricating thin film heterojunction solar cell by utilizing the opportunities for improving the cell performance.