Al₂O₃ NPs/porous silicon/silicon photovoltaic device

Alumina nanoparticles or (Al₂O₃ NPs) have been prepared by electrolysis method and deposited using drop casting method on glass and porous silicon (PS) substrates as thin films. Electrochemical etching of p-type silicon wafers was used to prepare nanocrystalline porous silicon. The structural and morphological properties of Al₂O₃ NPs were investigated by XRD, AFM and SEM techniques, respectively. The optical energy band gap of Al₂O₃ nanostructure (NSs) has been determined from its optical properties and it was around 3.6 eV. TEM has been used to investigate the nanoscale morphology of Al₂O₃NPs and showed the grains had a spherical shape and it confirmed the nanometric size of the prepared NPs. PS's XRD pattern revealed that it had a single crystalline structure, whereas it was amorphous for the Al₂O₃ NSs. The nanometric scale of both Al₂O₃ NSs and PS was calculated by XRD patterns, it was about 34nm for Al₂O₃ NPs and about 90 nm for PS. The diffusion effect of the Al₂O₃NPs on the electrical properties of heterojunctions PS/Si was studied. Photovoltaic characteristics have been reported for Al₂O₃NPs/PS/Si Photovoltaic device. Ag/Al₂O₃/PS/Si/Al solar cell parameters were reported the efficiency of solar cell was 11.8% and F.F is 32.08 %. Ag/Al₂O₃/PS/Si/Al Photodetector heterojunctions have two peaks of response the first one located at 350 nm and the second at 850 nm with maximum responsivity of 0.8A/W. (paper)