Fabrication and Characterization of SnO₂/n-Si Solar Cells

Abstract

SnO2/n-Si solar cells fabricated by the spray pyrolysis technique display significant photovoltaic effects when exposed to sunlight. These solar cells have a thin insulating layer at the SnO2/n-Si interface. The presence of the thin insulating layer can increase the open-circuit voltage by increasing the diode quality factor and by reducing the dark saturation current. The performance of this heterojunction solar cell was an open-circuit voltage of 0.52 V, short-circuit current of 21.0 mA/cm2, fill factor of 0.53 and conversion efficiency of 7.2%. The relative photospectral response above fifty percent spreads in a range of 420 to 1020 nm and is wider than that of conventional Si p-n solar cells. One possibility for cost reduction lies in the method of junction fabrication, and the idea of a simply deposited SnO2/n-Si junction is very attractive.