Abstract
The current work investigates the impact of annealing temperature on the optoelectronic properties of SnO2 thin films grown by chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. The as-grown SnO2 films, on p-Si substrate, are annealed at 200 °C and 400 °C for 10 min in Ar ambient for investigating the impact of such annealing on the performance of SnO2/p-Si heterojunction solar cells. The growth of a uniform SnO2 film on Si surface has been confirmed from SEM studies and the chemical composition and optical properties of the as-grown and annealed films are investigated in detail by employing XRD and ellipsometric measurements. Absorption coefficient of the samples is observed to vary in the range of 24 × 105 – 60 × 105/m, at its band gap (3.0 eV). The current–voltage characteristics under both dark and illuminated conditions suggest superior voltaic performance of the 200 °C annealed SnO2 film. The short-circuit current density, open-circuit voltage and fill-factor are obtained to be 0.45 mA/cm2, 5.41 mA/cm2 and 0.4 V, 0.34 V and 13%, 8% respectively for as-grown and 200 °C annealed samples. The maximum power conservation efficiency (η) of 4.9% is obtained for the 200 °C annealed sample. Thus, the study indicates the potential of CBD-grown SnO2 film for photovoltaic applications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baby TT, Ramaprabhu S (2012) Experimental study on the field emission properties of metal oxide nanoparticle-decorated graphene. J Appl Phys 111(1–5):034311. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3681376
Baco S, Chik A, Yassin MdF (2012) Study on optical properties of tin oxide thin film at different annealing temperature. J Sci Technol 4:61–71
Bae S-D, Kwon S-H, Jeong H-S et al (2017) Demonstration of high-performance p-type tin oxide thin film transistors using argon-plasma surface treatments. Semicond Sci Technol 32(1–7):075006. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/aa72b8
Bendjedidi H, Attaf A, Saidi H et al (2015) Properties of n type SnO2 semiconductor prepared by spray ultrasonic technique for photovoltaic applications. J Semicond 36(1–4):123002
Block T, Schmücker M (2016) Metal oxides for thermochemical energy storage: a comparison of several metal oxide systems. Sol Energy 126:195–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2015.12.032
Chen Z, Lai JKL, Shek CH et al (2003) Synthesis and structural characterization of rutile SnO2 nanocrystals. J Mater Res 18:1289–1292. https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2003.0176
Cheng HE, Tian DC, Huang KC (2012) Properties of SnO2 films grown by atomic layer deposition. Proced Eng 36:510–515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2012.03.074
Comini E, Faglia G, Sberveglieri G et al (2002) Stable and highly sensitive gas sensors based on semiconducting oxide nanobelts. Appl Phys Lett 10:1869–1871. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1504867@apl.2019.APLCLASS2019.issue-1
Dong Q, Shi Y, Wang K et al (2015) Insight into perovskite solar cells based on SnO2 compact electron selective layer. J Phys Chem 119:10212–10217. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b00541
Igwe HU, Ugwu EI (2010) Optical characteristics of nanocrystaline thermal annealed tin oxide (SnO2) thin film samples prepared by chemical bath deposition technique. J Adv Appl Sci Res 1:240–246
Jadsadapattarakul D, Euvananont C, Thanachayanont C et al (2008) Tin oxide thin films deposited by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. Ceram Int 34:1051–1054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2007.09.096
Jian Z, Hejing W (2003) The physical meanings of 5 basic parameters for an X-ray diffraction peak and their application. Chin J Geochem 22:38–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02831544
Leng D, Wu L, Jiang H, Zhao Y et al (2012) Preparation and properties of SnO2 film deposited by magnetron sputtering. Int J Photoenergy 2012:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/235971
Liu Q, Qin MC, Ke WJ et al (2016) Enhanced stability of perovskite solar cells with low-temperature hydrothermally grown SnO2 electron transport layers. Adv Funct Mater 26:6069–6075. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201600910
Mane RS, Lokhande CD (2000) Chemical deposition method for metal chalcogenide thin films. Mater Chem Phys 65:1–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0254-0584(00)00217-0
Mun H, Yang H, Park J et al (2015) High electron mobility in epitaxial SnO2−x in semiconducting regime. APL Mater 3(1–7):076107. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4927470
Muniz FTL, Miranda MAR, Santos CM et al (2016) The Scherrer equation and the dynamical theory of X-ray diffraction. Acta Crystallogr Sect A Found Adv 72:385–390. https://doi.org/10.1107/S205327331600365X
Patel P, Karmakar A, Jariwala C et al (2013) Preparation and characterization of SnO2 thin film coating using rf-plasma enhanced reactive thermal evaporation. Proced Eng 51:473–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2013.01.067
Pawar SM, Pawar BS, Kim JH et al (2011) Recent status of chemical bath deposited metal chalcogenide and metal oxide thin films. Curr Appl Phys 11:117–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cap.2010.07.007
Pérez-Tomás A, Mingorance A, Tanenbaum D et al (2017) Metal oxides in photovoltaics: all oxide, ferroic, and perovskite solar cells. The future of semiconductor oxides in next-generation solar cells. Elsevier, New York, pp 267–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-811165-9.00008-9
Rasheed RT, Algaw S (2016) Annealing effect of SnO2 nanoparticles prepared by the sol–gel method. J Adv Phys 5:236–240. https://doi.org/10.1166/jap.2016.1262
Sultana J, Paul S, Karmakar A et al (2018) Optimizing the thermal annealing temperature: technological route for tuning the photo-detecting property of p-CuO thin films grown by chemical bath deposition method. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29:12878–12887. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-9407-3
Tazikeh S, Akbari A, Talebi A et al (2014) Synthesis and characterization of tin oxide nanoparticles via the co-precipitation method. Mater Sci Pol 32:98–101. https://doi.org/10.2478/s13536-013-0164-y
Tompkins HG, Hilfiker JN (2015) Spectroscopic ellipsometry. Practical application to thin film characterization. Momentum Press, New York
Tripathy SK, Hota BP, Rajeswari PV (2013) Study of optical characteristics of tin oxide thin film prepared by sol–gel method. Bull Mater Sci 36:1231–1237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-013-0582-9
Viezbicke BD, Patel S, Davis BE et al (2015) Evaluation of the Tauc method for optical absorption edge determination: ZnO thin films as a model system. Phys Status Sol (B) 252:1700–1710. https://doi.org/10.1002/pssb.201552007
Wongsaprom K, Bornphotsawatkun R-a, Swatsitang E (2014) Synthesis and characterization of tin oxide (SnO 2) nanocrystalline powders by a simple modified sol–gel route. Appl Phys A 114:373–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-8197-y
Xiong L, Guo Y, Wen J et al (2018) Review on the application of SnO2 in perovskite solar cells. Adv Funct Mater 28(118):1802757. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201802757
Yu X, Marks TJ, Facchetti A (2016) Metal oxides for optoelectronic applications. Nat Mater 15:383–396. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4599
Zhou L, Xiao L, Yang H et al (2018) Greatly enhanced photovoltaic performance of crystalline silicon solar cells using metal oxide layers by band-gap alignment engineering. Nanomaterials. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201804.0353.v1
Acknowledgements
Miss. Anannya Bhattacharya and Jenifar Sultana would like to acknowledge the DST inspire program India, for providing financial support to pursue their research. Subhrajit Sikdar and Rajib Saha would like to thank the University Grants Commission and WBDITE for funding their fellowships. The authors would also like to acknowledge the DST Purse program and Center of Excellence (COE), TEQIP and WBDITE for providing infrastructure and financial support to conduct this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bhattacharya, A., Sultana, J., Sikdar, S. et al. Investigating the impact of thermal annealing on the photovoltaic performance of chemical bath deposited SnO2/p-Si heterojunction solar cells. Microsyst Technol 26, 1351–1358 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-019-04667-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-019-04667-x