Investigation of Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of MnO Doped with Cu Thin Films Prepared by PLD Technique for Solar Cell Applications

Abstract

In the current study, concentrated Nd:YAG laser pulses at 500 mJ with a second radiation at 1064 nm (pulse width 9 ns) and repetition frequency (6 Hz) for 300 laser pulses incident on the target surface were employed to coat glass substrates with MnO thin films. Using an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), an atomic force microscope (AFM), and a UV-Vis spectrophotometer, the structural, morphological, and optical characteristics of the films doped with different concentrations of Cu content (0.03, 0.05, 0.07, and 0.09) were examined. The results show that the films are polycrystalline, with the largest peak appearing at an angle of 35.31, or a reflection of (111). The crystalline size of the deposited thin films was calculated using Debye Scherer formula and found to increase from 11.8 nm for undoped MnO2 to 29.6 nm for doped (MnO) with the increase of Cu content from x=0 to x=0.09 at preferred orientation of (111). All the samples have a cubic structure. Also, the results showed that Cu content of the films affects the surface morphology. From the results of AFM analysis, it was found that the roughness and average diameter change when adding Cu to the structure, with the highest value occurring at Cu ratio 0.09 equal to 65.40 and 71.21 nm, respectively. UV–Vis spectrophotometer was used to investigate the optical transmission. It was found that when Cu content of films increased, the transmittance of films decreased. Hall Effect measurements show that all prepared films at RT have two type of conductivity P-type and n-type. The electrical characteristics of the (MnO)1-xCux/Si heterojunction Solar Cell have been studied and found that the efficiency (η) decreases with the increase of Cu content.