Cuprous oxide, a p-type semiconductor, permits multiple device applications due to the non-toxic nature, suitable direct energy gap, earth abundance, and ideal band alignment needed for solar cell and photoelectrochemical applications. Due to that, there has been a renewal of interest in solar cells fabrication field based on Cu2O material. In this work, pure cuprous oxide and silver nanoparticles doped cuprous oxide (0.02, 0.04, 0.06 wt.%) films were prepared via thermal evaporation technique with a thickness of 60 nm. The structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of the films have been studied by characterization instruments such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), UV-Visible spectrophotometer, and I-V characteristic. The XRD revealed that the fabricated films have a certain amorphous quality and the grain size was found to be in between (9.2-18.4) nm which comparable to that measured from FESEM. The optical bandgap of the samples was found to be in between 2.79 eV and 3.42 eV which was the main factor in manipulating and improving the Cu2O optical properties by doping and choosing the appropriate ones to fabricate high efficiency and low-cost solar cells. The effect of the Ag doping on the Cu2O properties was obvious and positively influenced by solar cell efficiency improvement. Optimization of the deposition conditions and doping process led to enhanced solar cell performance, especially the conversion efficiency achieved (3.5) by doping 0.04% Ag to Cu2O which is considered to be highly efficient compared to the overall efficiency of Cu2O solar cells. This can open a new route for the fabrication of Cu2O based solar cells with improved performance.
