Modelling and numerical analysis of ZnO/CuO/Cu₂O heterojunction solar cell using SCAPS

Abstract

In this work, the SCAPS-1D program was utilized to perform simulations of ZnO/CuO/Cu2O thin-film solar cells. Based on the cell structure and device fabrication process, solar cell structure parameters such as the thickness of the CuO layer, ZnO layer, donor density in the ZnO layer were evaluated in detail. The results indicated that an optimal structure of ZnO/CuO/Cu2O thin-film solar cell could be obtained when the thickness of the ZnO layer, CuO layer, and donor density in the ZnO layer is 100 nm, 500 nm, 1 × 1017 cm−3, respectively. The optimized solar cell structure of ZnO/CuO/Cu2O shows a potential efficiency of about 12% under the 1 sun air mass 1.5 G spectrum illumination. Besides that, the performance of the cell under individual solar concentrations and operating temperatures was also investigated.