Effect of solvent volume of CuAlO₂ thin films for solar cell active layer

Abstract

Copper aluminium oxide thin films were synthesised using the spray pyrolysis technique for different solvent volumes with a constant Cu/Al molar ratio. The preferential orientation is found along (100) and (102) planes, and the crystallite sizes are in the range from 21·6 to 28·4 nm. The structural studies reveal that the grown films were polycrystalline in nature. Hall effect results confirm that the grown films are p type. When the solvent volume is increased from 10 to 40 mL, the resistivity of the films decreases from 1·12 × 10^− 6 to 6·2 × 10^− 8 Ω cm. The band gap of the films increases with increasing the solvent volume. The obtained results show that the grown films can be used as the active layer in a solar cell.

Keywords:

• CuAlO₂
• Solvent volume
• Band gap
• Mobility

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our sincere thanks to the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India, for their financial support [Project ID: INT/SWD/VINN/P-04/2011 and SR/FST/ETI-284/2011(C)]. We wish to acknowledge SASTRA University, Thanjavur, for extending infrastructural support to carry out this work.