Characterization of Laser-Ablated Nanostructured Al2O3/p-Si Solar Cells

Abstract

This work was devoted for production of alumina (Al2O3) nanoparticles via pulsed-laser ablation technique from a solid alumina target immersed in distilled water with laser wavelength of 1064 nm. The produced NPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) measurements. FTIR spectra exhibit that bulk Al2O3 vibrational modes appear at <1000 cm-1, which indicates the formation of aluminum oxide nanoparticles. The SEM images showed that most of the obtained nanoparticles have spherical shape with a particle size of less than 1 micron. The absorption spectra of Al2O3 nanoparticles suspended in deionized water were recorded at room temperature using UV-visible spectroscopy. The absorption spectra show a strong peak at 240 nm arising from the presence of Al2O3 nanoparticles in combination with energy gap 4 eV. The n-Al2O3/p-Si solar cells were fabricated by depositing the aluminum oxide nanoparticles on p-type silicon wafers and glass substrates and then dried in an oven at 40°C for one hour to prepare and characterize heterojunction solar cells.