Experimental and numerical simulation studies of CuO thin films based solar cells

Abstract

This study presents an experimental investigation into the solar performance of copper oxide (CuO) thin films. These CuO films were fabricated using the spray pyrolysis technique, and their structural, morpholigical, optical, and electrical properties were examined in relation to the effect of layer thickness. Additionally, we employed SCAPS-1D software to perform numerical simulations of CuO-based solar cells. Moreover, the band gap energy was discovered to be between 1.14 eV, 1.53 eV and 1.61. Using the four-point probe, the electrical resistivity was computed and the high conductivity found corresponds to the sample generated with a film thickness of t = 292 nm, is 7.52 (×10−3 Ω.cm)−1. The CuO/TiO2/FTO solar cell configuration showed a potential efficiency of 13.38% when the absorber layer thickness is 292 nm and the band gap value is 1.53 eV. Furthermore, based on the band gap energy value of 1.53 eV the investigation has been deepened by expanding the range of absorber layer thickness and temperature to thoroughly examine their impact on solar cell performance. Moreover, the CuO/TiO2 solar cells curves of external quantum efficiency (EQE) for various CuO layer thicknesses were determined.