Authors : Sabah N. Mazhir, Hanaa M. Yaseen, Mona M. Salih and Ghuson H. Mohamed
Abstract: In this study, Pulsed Laser Deposition technique (PLD) was utilized in this study to prepare to pure and CuO doped TiO2 thin films and different weight ratios of CuO namely of (x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2) wt.% were deposited twice, on a glass slide and another on n-type silicon wafer substrates. Laser Nd-YAG with λ = 1064 nm, energy = 800 mJ and number of shots = 500 has been used in this experiment. Crystal structure and surface morphology have been investigated by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and AFM spectroscopy. The results reveal that the prepared (TiO2) , (CuO1-x)x thin films are polycrystalline, tetragonal structure and preferred orientation along 2θ around were 25.30 along (011) plane. AFM measurements confirmed that the films have good crystalline and homogeneous surface. The Root Mean Square (RMS) values showed that surface roughness and grain size of the thin films increased when CuO contents increase. The efficiency and solar cell parameters estimated from the I-V curves under dark and illumination were measured and the highest values of Jsc, Voc, FF and efficiency of the fabricated solar cell were 1.0 mA, 1.6 V, 0.534 and 2.138%, respectively for (TiO2) , (CuO)0.2. Therefore, TiO2:CuO nanocomposite is a good selection and improves the solar cell efficiency.
Sabah N. Mazhir, Hanaa M. Yaseen, Mona M. Salih and Ghuson H. Mohamed, 2018. Structural and Solar Cell Properties of CuO Doped TiO2 Thin Films Prepared by Laser Induced Plasma. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 13: 3555-3561.