Nanostructured CuO/Si junction produced by a simple and environmentally friendly techniques for optoelectronic applications

AZO/CuO/Si solar cells have been successfully fabricated by using simple and low-cost techniques. Hot water treatment method has been used to prepared p-type CuO nanostructures onto n-type Si substrate by immersing Cu films in hot DI water at 70 °C for 7hrs. Then, as grown CuO nanoleaf structures were coated with thin shell of AZO using high-pressure sputtering technique. The structural and morphological properties of the synthesized CuO nanoleaves have been investigated by employing XRD and SEM techniques. The optical properties have been studied by UV-vis -NIR spectrum. Also, electrical device performance with AZO/CuO/Si structure was investigated using I-V measurements. Results demonstrated that CuO nanoleaves exhibit a relatively broad absorption spectrum in the ultraviolet and visible regions. The obtained photocurrent density response value of the nanostructured p-CuO/ n-Si heterojunction with AZO shell was 10.3±0.1 µA/cm2. Also, I-V measurements indicated that a rectifying Schottky junction is formed between p-type CuO NSs and the n-type Si substrate. This study suggests that the device based on an CuO/Si structure can potentially serve a wide range of simple and low-cost optical applications.