A comparative study on the impact of preparation technique on the minority carrier lifetime of Cu2O absorber

Cu2O solar cells are attractive but still provide conversion efficiencies well below their theoretical limits. In this work, we compare the charge carrier dynamics of Cu2O absorbers prepared using the popular techniques of Magnetron Sputtering, Electrodeposition, Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD), and Thermal Oxidation. This is performed using Transient Absorption (TA) spectroscopy and Time-Resolved Photoluminescence (TRPL). All samples after optimization show an average carrier lifetime in the ns range. The electrodeposited samples provide the highest value. This work should stimulate the use of carrier lifetime techniques for the optimization of Cu2O absorbers.