Cuprous oxide photovoltaic cells

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6671855

Trivich, D.; Wang, E. Y.; Komp, R. J.; Kakar, A. S.

Cuprous oxide, with a band gap of 2.0 eV, is an attractive material for solar cells because of low cost and great availability. The current conversion efficiency is 1%, but theoretical estimates are >13%. For various Schottky barriers, e.g., Al/Cu/sub 2/O, it is proposed that the V/sub oc/ is limited by chemical conversion of the junctions to Cu/Cu/sub 2/O junctions, and the model is supported by Auger and ESCA results. It is proposed to avoid the reaction by use of an oxide interlayer as in Al/Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//Cu/sub 2/O, which also gives an MIS structure, but only minimal success has yet been achieved with the methods tried. Sb/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and SiO/sub x/ layers were explored. Another approach could be to use oxide heterojunctions on Cu/sub 2/O. Several were explored and ZnO/Cu/sub 2/O was best. In and Cd are effective dopants for Cu/sub 2/O. With samples annealed at 500/sup 0/C, diffusion lengths of approximately 4 ..mu..m were measured by an SPV method. The spectral sensitivity of Cu/Cu/sub 2/O cells has a threshold at 630 nm and a maximum at 500 nm.

• Research Organization: Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: ET-78-S-02-4726
• OSTI ID: 6671855
• Report Number(s): CONF-780619-16
• Resource Relation: Conference: IEEE photovoltaic specialists conference, Washington, DC, USA, 5 Jun 1978
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
COPPER OXIDES
FABRICATION
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SOLAR CELLS
EFFICIENCY
SPECTRAL RESPONSE
ALUMINIUM
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
ANNEALING
ANTIMONY OXIDES
AVAILABILITY
COPPER
COST
CRYSTAL DOPING
DIFFUSION LENGTH
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
MATERIALS
SCHOTTKY BARRIER DIODES
SILICON OXIDES
SURFACE TREATMENTS
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ANTIMONY COMPOUNDS
CHALCOGENIDES
COPPER COMPOUNDS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELEMENTS
HEAT TREATMENTS
JUNCTIONS
METALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion
360601 - Other Materials- Preparation & Manufacture