Tunable properties of SnOx sputter-deposited by RGPP and GLAD techniques: A potential candidate for photosensing and all-oxide solar cells

Abstract

In this work, optical and electrical properties of tin-oxide (SnOx) thin-films were investigated for broadband photosensing and photovoltaic applications. The GLancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) and Reactive Gas Pulsing Process (RGPP) techniques were used to study the effects of the oxygen ratio variation and deposition angle on the film optoelectronic and photovoltaic properties. The deposition angle of the particle flux was kept at 80° and the injected oxygen gas concentration was tuned by changing the oxygen pulsing time from 0 to 20 s. It is found that the material band gap increases from 0.9 eV to 3.56 eV when the oxygen content increases. The deposited SnOx films exhibited improved and tuned optoelectronic properties, demonstrating their potential applications for developing alternative broadband photosensing layers and eco-friendly all-oxide solar cells. In this regard, SnOx-based photosensor and all-oxide SnOx solar cell structures were developed using the deposited thin-films. It is revealed that the prepared SnOx photosensor shows the highest responsivity of 32.7 mA/W and improved ION/IOFF ratio of 48 dB. Moreover, the optimized all-oxide SnOx solar cell demonstrates a high efficiency of 3.41 %, a short-circuit current of 14.53 mA/cm2 and an open circuit voltage of 0.49 V. These interesting results make the proposed elaboration process based on combined RGPP and GLAD techniques highly suitable for the development of high-performance optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices based on cost-effective metal oxide materials.