Deposition of semiconductor thin films for use in photovoltaic cells

The depletion of fossil fuels increases the orientation to alternative clean energy sources due to their expensive and harmful effects on the environment. Semiconductor technologies are widely used in alternative energy sources, optoelectronics, filtering, purification devices and sensor applications. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a widely preferred as a semiconductor material due to its features such as stable chemical structure, non-toxicity, high photoactivity and low cost. TiO2; a semiconductor metal oxide is actively used in the form of thin films in photovoltaic cells. TiO2; deposited as thin films on the surfaces of various substrates by Metal oxide thin film deposition methods such as chemical bathing, electrochemical deposition, sol-gel dipping spin coating. By doping TiO2 thin films with a wide variety of additives like cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), tin (Sn), alumina (Al) and copper (Cu), improving the structures of the thin film by changing its properties such as crystal structure, forbidden energy gaps and transparency that is provided. One of the coating methods, dip coating method; stands out with its advantages like being able to coat substrates of different sizes and shapes, simplicity of application, no need for advanced technology or expensive equipment, repeating the process according to the desired thickness, and changing the experimental parameters according to the desired coating feature. In this study; pure TiO2, Al and Cu metals and also doped TiO2 thin films were deposited on glass substrates by sol-gel dip coating method. By producing Al, Cu doped TiO2 thin films with three different doping ratios of 1%, 3%, 5%; the effects of doping on morphological, structural and optical properties were investigated. Structural properties of produced pure and Al, Cu doped TiO2 thin films were determined by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) Device, morphological properties by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and optical properties by UV-Vis. It was characterized using a spectrophotometer. The use of the characterized films as photovoltaic cell layer is simulated.