Effect of Annealing on the Optical Characteristics of Electrodeposited <002>-Oriented CuO Thin Films

Abstract

The p-type semiconductor CuO has attracted increasing attention as the light-absorbing layer in photovoltaic devices, due to the bandgap energy appropriate to the application. This paper reports the preparation of the (002)-oriented and excellent photoactive CuO films prepared by electrodeposition in a basic aqueous solution followed by annealing. The annealing under optimized condition gave the improvement of both the crystallinity and photoactivity including the response and photocurrent density. The annealed CuO film is a potential candidate as the light absorbing layer of next generation thin film photovoltaic devices.