Electronic properties of Au/Cu2O/n-type Si heterojunction for energy conversion

Au/Cu
2
O/n-type Si structures have been fabricated and characterized electrically. The structure yields a current rectification of almost 7 orders of magnitude. It is also shown that the structure performs as a metal/semiconductor junction when subjected to CV measurements. The Cu
2
O film, deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering is highly transparent for light of energy below the fundamental band gap, while concurrently highly absorbing of light with energy above the bandgap. It is concluded that the structure is well suited as the upper junction in a tandem junction solar cell configuration, utilizing an industrial standard Si solar cell as ‘substrate’.