ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Growth and morphological studies of NiO/CuO/ZnO based nanostructured thin films for photovoltaic applications

Siddharth Joshi, Mrunmaya Mudigere, L. Krishnamurthy, and G. L. Shekar

Centre of Nanotechnology, National Institute of Engineering, Manandavadi Road, Mysore, Karnataka, 570008, India

E-mail: siddharth_joshi@hotmail.com

Abstract: At present, inorganic semiconducting materials are the most economical and viable source for the renewable energy industry. The present work deals with the morphological and optical characterization of copper oxide (CuO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films fabricated by layer by layer deposition on nickel oxide (NiO) coated indium tin oxide (ITO) glass by solution processing methods, mainly chemical bath deposition (CBD) and hydrothermal deposition (HTD) processes at room temperature. As a whole, the above inorganic composite materials (NiO/CuO/ZnO) can be applied in photovoltaic cells. An attempt has been made to study structural, morphological and absorption characteristics of NiO/CuO/ZnO heterojunction using state of the art techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV spectroscopy. The energy band gaps of CuO and ZnO have also been calculated and discussed based on the UV spectroscopy measurements.

Keywords: nickel oxide – copper oxide – zinc oxide – thin film structural and optical properties

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-014-0596-9

Chemical Papers 68 (11) 1584–1592 (2014)