Fabrication and characterization of c-Si/porous-Si/CdS/ZnxCd1-xO heterojunctions for applications in nanostructured solar cells

Abstract

Solar cells based on c-Si/porous-Si/CdS/Zn_xCd_1-xO heterojunctions were synthesized by depositing CdS films on c-Si/porous-Si (PS) substrates by electrochemical deposition (ED). PS layers with systematically varied pore diameter (8-45 nm) and were fabricated on p-type c-Si wafers using electrochemical etching. The window layers of Zn_xCd_1-xO with several Zn concentrations(x=0.2; 0.4; 0.5 and 0.6) were also deposited on the CdS buffer layers by ED. The photoelectrical properties of heterojunctions were studied as functions of PS pore size and Zn content in Zn_xCd_1-xO. The optimal pore size and Zn contents were found to be 10 nm and x=0.6, respectively. These yielded a solar cell sample exhibiting an efficiency of 9.9%, the maximum observed in this study.

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