Fabrication NiO: Cu / Si Heterojunction by the Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition (AACVD)

Abstract

In this research, as the thin films were formed by an AACVD process, copper doped nickel oxide was used to prepare the Cu doped Ni thin films by ratio doping (Cu/Ni = 0, 7.5, 10 and 12.8 at w.t %). Thin films of Cu doped NiO were heated at a crystallization temperature of 400 °C for 2 hours. The thin films obtained by the AACVD method have a film thickness of the order (45-62 nm). Promising solar cells that could be created by NiO film as the absorber using Cu doping. The NiO:Cu film has promising optical characteristics; about (3.5-2.8 eV) energy gap band and a high absorption coefficient, which means that the most suitable absorber can be commercially developed using the NiO:Cu film. Furthermore, there are no rare metals in the NiO: Cu film The best conversion efficiency with the heterojunction of NiO: Cu/Si and NiO:Cu was 2.8571429% which showed the possibility of a very low cost solar cell.