Oxides for sustainable photovoltaics with earth-abundant materials

Energy conversion technologies are aiming to extremely high power capacities per year. Nontoxicity and abundance of the materials are the key requirements to a sustainable photovoltaic technology. Oxides are among the key materials to reach these goals. We investigate the influence of thin buffer layers on the performance of an ZnO:Al/buffer/Cu2O solar cells. Introduction of a thin ZnO or Al2O3 buffer layer, grown by thermal ALD, between ZnO:Al and Cu2O resulted in 45% increase of the solar cell efficiency. VPE growth of Cu2O employing elemental copper and pure oxygen as precursor materials is presented. The growth is performed on MgO substrates with the (001) orientation. On-and off-oriented substrates have been employed and the growth results are compared. XRD investigations show the growth of the (110) oriented Cu2O for all temperatures, whereas at a high substrate temperature additional (001) Cu2O growth occurs. An increase of the oxygen partial pressure leads to a more pronounced 2D growth mode, whereby pores between the islands still remain. The implementation of off-axis substrates with 3.5 degrees and 5 degrees does not lead to an improvement of the layer quality. The (110) orientation remains predominant, the grain size decreases and the FWHM of the (220) peak increases. From the AFM images it is concluded, that the (110) surface grows with a tilt angle to the substrate surface.