Cargando…

Resulting Effect of the p-Type of ZnTe: Cu Thin Films of the Intermediate Layer in Heterojunction Solar Cells: Structural, Optical, and Electrical Characteristics

The microstructural, electrical, and optical properties of Cu-doped and undoped ZnTe thin films grown on glass substrates are covered in this article. To determine the chemical makeup of these materials, both energy-dispersive X-ray (EDAX) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were emplo...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ahmed, Moustafa, Alshahrie, Ahmed, Shaaban, Essam R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10143852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37109916
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma16083082
_version_ 1785033958628524032
author Ahmed, Moustafa
Alshahrie, Ahmed
Shaaban, Essam R.
author_facet Ahmed, Moustafa
Alshahrie, Ahmed
Shaaban, Essam R.
author_sort Ahmed, Moustafa
collection PubMed
description The microstructural, electrical, and optical properties of Cu-doped and undoped ZnTe thin films grown on glass substrates are covered in this article. To determine the chemical makeup of these materials, both energy-dispersive X-ray (EDAX) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed. The cubic zinc-blende crystal structure of ZnTe and Cu-doped ZnTe films was discovered using X-ray diffraction crystallography. According to these microstructural studies, the average crystallite size increased as the amount of Cu doping increased, whereas the microstrain decreased as the crystallinity increased; hence, defects were minimized. The Swanepoel method was used to compute the refractive index, and it was found that the refractive index rises as the Cu doping levels rises. The optical band gap energy was observed to decrease from 2.225 eV to 1.941 eV as the Cu content rose from 0% to 8%, and then slightly increase to 1.965 eV at a Cu concentration of 10%. The Burstein–Moss effect may be connected to this observation. The larger grain size, which lessens the dispersion of the grain boundary, was thought to be the cause of the observed increase in the dc electrical conductivity with an increase in Cu doping. In structured undoped and Cu-doped ZnTe films, there were two carrier transport conduction mechanisms that could be seen. According to the Hall Effect measurements, all the grown films exhibited a p-type conduction behavior. In addition, the findings demonstrated that as the Cu doping level rises, the carrier concentration and the Hall mobility similarly rise, reaching an ideal Cu concentration of 8 at.%, which is due to the fact that the grain size decreases grain boundary scattering. Furthermore, we examined the impact of the ZnTe and ZnTe:Cu (at Cu 8 at.%) layers on the efficiency of the CdS/CdTe solar cells.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10143852
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-101438522023-04-29 Resulting Effect of the p-Type of ZnTe: Cu Thin Films of the Intermediate Layer in Heterojunction Solar Cells: Structural, Optical, and Electrical Characteristics Ahmed, Moustafa Alshahrie, Ahmed Shaaban, Essam R. Materials (Basel) Article The microstructural, electrical, and optical properties of Cu-doped and undoped ZnTe thin films grown on glass substrates are covered in this article. To determine the chemical makeup of these materials, both energy-dispersive X-ray (EDAX) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed. The cubic zinc-blende crystal structure of ZnTe and Cu-doped ZnTe films was discovered using X-ray diffraction crystallography. According to these microstructural studies, the average crystallite size increased as the amount of Cu doping increased, whereas the microstrain decreased as the crystallinity increased; hence, defects were minimized. The Swanepoel method was used to compute the refractive index, and it was found that the refractive index rises as the Cu doping levels rises. The optical band gap energy was observed to decrease from 2.225 eV to 1.941 eV as the Cu content rose from 0% to 8%, and then slightly increase to 1.965 eV at a Cu concentration of 10%. The Burstein–Moss effect may be connected to this observation. The larger grain size, which lessens the dispersion of the grain boundary, was thought to be the cause of the observed increase in the dc electrical conductivity with an increase in Cu doping. In structured undoped and Cu-doped ZnTe films, there were two carrier transport conduction mechanisms that could be seen. According to the Hall Effect measurements, all the grown films exhibited a p-type conduction behavior. In addition, the findings demonstrated that as the Cu doping level rises, the carrier concentration and the Hall mobility similarly rise, reaching an ideal Cu concentration of 8 at.%, which is due to the fact that the grain size decreases grain boundary scattering. Furthermore, we examined the impact of the ZnTe and ZnTe:Cu (at Cu 8 at.%) layers on the efficiency of the CdS/CdTe solar cells. MDPI 2023-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10143852/ /pubmed/37109916 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma16083082 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ahmed, Moustafa
Alshahrie, Ahmed
Shaaban, Essam R.
Resulting Effect of the p-Type of ZnTe: Cu Thin Films of the Intermediate Layer in Heterojunction Solar Cells: Structural, Optical, and Electrical Characteristics
title Resulting Effect of the p-Type of ZnTe: Cu Thin Films of the Intermediate Layer in Heterojunction Solar Cells: Structural, Optical, and Electrical Characteristics
title_full Resulting Effect of the p-Type of ZnTe: Cu Thin Films of the Intermediate Layer in Heterojunction Solar Cells: Structural, Optical, and Electrical Characteristics
title_fullStr Resulting Effect of the p-Type of ZnTe: Cu Thin Films of the Intermediate Layer in Heterojunction Solar Cells: Structural, Optical, and Electrical Characteristics
title_full_unstemmed Resulting Effect of the p-Type of ZnTe: Cu Thin Films of the Intermediate Layer in Heterojunction Solar Cells: Structural, Optical, and Electrical Characteristics
title_short Resulting Effect of the p-Type of ZnTe: Cu Thin Films of the Intermediate Layer in Heterojunction Solar Cells: Structural, Optical, and Electrical Characteristics
title_sort resulting effect of the p-type of znte: cu thin films of the intermediate layer in heterojunction solar cells: structural, optical, and electrical characteristics
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10143852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37109916
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma16083082
work_keys_str_mv AT ahmedmoustafa resultingeffectoftheptypeofzntecuthinfilmsoftheintermediatelayerinheterojunctionsolarcellsstructuralopticalandelectricalcharacteristics
AT alshahrieahmed resultingeffectoftheptypeofzntecuthinfilmsoftheintermediatelayerinheterojunctionsolarcellsstructuralopticalandelectricalcharacteristics
AT shaabanessamr resultingeffectoftheptypeofzntecuthinfilmsoftheintermediatelayerinheterojunctionsolarcellsstructuralopticalandelectricalcharacteristics