Performance of SnS: Ag doped Cu prepared by PLD technique for solar cell application

In this thesis, (SnS: Ag): Cu/Si solar cell was fabricated by modifying specific properties of SnS films deposited on Si wafers using the PLD technique by doping SnS: Ag with Cu at different ratios. The effect of the Cu doping ratio on the properties of the prepared thin films was investigated with using different techniques. The XRD analysis shows the polycrystalline nature of the prepared SnS powder and broad lines for thin films as its nanocrystalline structure. Additional phases appeared corresponding to Ag and Cu at a high ratio. The crystallite size reduced from 15.4 to 12.8 nm after doping with 0.05 Cu, and increased up to 14.7 with an increasing Cu ratio to 0.15, while the lattice strain has the opposite behavior. The AFM and FTIR results show the lowest roughness at a 0.05 Cu ratio and the characteristic bands for SnS. Most bands shifted towards a higher wavenumber after doping with Ag, as well as with Cu. The optical absorbance increases for the SnS: Ag sample and more increasing with the Cu content. A red shift in the band edge with Cu doping appeared. The band gap reduced from 2.2 eV for SnS to 1.75 eV for (SnS: Ag)0.85Cu0.15. The direct current conductivity shows two activation energies reduced with metal content. Both the SnS and (SnS: Ag)0.85Cu0.15 were p-type, while the three others were n-type. The I-V characteristic shows typical curves with an acceptable ideality. The optimum solar efficiency of 1.28% appeared for the (SnS: Ag)0.9Cu0.1/p-Si heterojunction.