Modeling of heterojunction photovoltaic cells based on ZnO nanowires array and earth-abundant cuprous oxide absorbers

Abstract

As a potential solution for low-cost efficient solar cells, radial junctions consisting of ZnO nanowires arrays embedded in Cu2O thin films have been theoretically modeled. Calculations have been performed to explore the geometric dependence of performance of such wire-based solar cells. By properly setting material properties and cell dimensions, a reasonable power conversion efficiency of 19.7% can be expected in a material with 2 {\mu}m minority carrier diffusion length. The detrimental effects of bulk, interface and contact-related states on solar cell performance have also been studied, from which the efficiencies between ~22% and ~12% for a series of materials, ranging from optimal to seriously poor-quality, are extracted. The findings suggest that rational device design plays a crucial role in implementing efficient Cu2O/ZnO wire radial junction solar cells.