Optical Study of Cuprous Oxide and Ferric Oxide Based Materials for Applications in Low Cost Solar Cells

Abstract

One of the interesting forms of cuprous oxide and ferric oxide based materials is CuFeO2 which can be a delafossite-type compound and is a well known p-type semiconductor. This compound makes up an interesting family of materials for technological applications. CuFeO2 thin films recently gained renewed interest for potential applications in solar cell devices especially as absorption layers. One of the interesting facts is that CuFeO2 is made from cheap materials such as copper and iron. In this study, CuFeO2 thin films are intentionally deposited on corning glass and silicon substrates by the radio-frequency and direct current sputtering method with complicated and well developed co-sputtering recipes. The deposition was performed at room temperature which leads to an amorphous phase with extremely low roughness and high density. The films also were annealed at 500°C in 5% H2 in Ar for the passivation. A detailed optical study was performed on these thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry and by ultra-violet visible near infrared spectroscopy. Depending on sputtering conditions, the direct band gap was extrapolated to be from 1.96 eV to 2.2 eV and 2.92 eV to 2.96 eV and the indirect band gap is about 1.22 eV to 1.42 eV. A good electrical conduction is also observed which is suitable␣for solar cell applications. In future more study on the structural properties will be carried out in order to fully understand these materials.