Zinc oxide/cuprous(I) oxide-based solar cells prepared by electrodeposition

The aim of this research was to fabricate zinc oxide/cuprous(I) oxide-based heterojunction solar cells with the use of electrodeposition methods, and further to investigate their structures and photovoltaic properties. The ZnO and Cu₂O were used as n- and p-type semiconductors, respectively, to fabricate photovoltaic devices based on Ag/ZnO/Cu₂O/Cu(100) heterojunction structures. The crystallite sizes of ZnO and Cu₂O were determined to be 25.4(3) nm and 69.8(6) nm, respectively. It was pointed out that efficiencies of the solar cells can be gradually adjusted, using different thicknesses of Cu₂O layers, to achieve values as high as 2.7%. The standard diode model and high device performance provide new insights into the issue, outlining guidelines for high-performance solar cells and suggesting that a metal-n-type semiconductor-p-type semiconductor nanostructure-crystal layered, sandwiched-type architecture is a promising platform: to boost the efficiency