Photovoltaic effect of TiO2 thick films with an ultrathin BiFeO3 as buffer layer

Abstract

The photovoltaic (PV) effect of a bilayer anatase TiO2/BiFeO3 (BFO) film has been studied. The 20-nm ultrathin BFO layers were deposited on the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates by the chemical solution deposition method. An anatase TiO2 layer is deposited subsequently on the BFO surface via a screen-printing technique. It is found that the FTO/TiO2/Au cell exhibits negligible PV effect under solar exposure, while the one after introducing an ultrathin BFO film between TiO2 and FTO leads to a considerable PV effect with an open-circuit voltage of −0.58 V and a photocurrent density of 18.27 µA/cm2. The FTO/BiVO4 (BVO)/TiO2/Au cell was constructed to investigate the underlying mechanism for the observed effect. A negligible PV effect of the FTO/BVO/TiO2/Au cell indicates that the PV effect of the FTO/BFO/TiO2/Au cell arises mainly from a built-in electric field in the BFO film induced by the self-polarization. Our work opens up a new path to utilize TiO2 and may influence the future design of solar cells.