Home
1
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, SVKM’s Institute of Technology Dhule, Dhule 424001, India
* Correspondence: amol.badgujar@svkm.ac.in
Journal of Optoelectronic and Biomedical Materials 2026, 18(1),19-31; https://doi.org/10.67229/JOBM16291
Copper oxide (CuO) is a stable,
earth-abundant p-type semiconductor with strong potential as an absorber
material for thin-film solar cells (TFSCs). However, experimentally
reported efficiencies for CuO TFSCs remain significantly below
theoretical limits, primarily due to interfacial recombination and
suboptimal heterojunction design. In this work, a systematic SCAPS-1D
numerical investigation of CuO-based TFSCs incorporating CdS, ZnO, and
TiO2 buffer layers is presented. The device architecture,
with an Au/CuO/buffer/Al:ZnO/Al configuration, was modeled to
simultaneously optimize buffer-layer thickness and donor density,
thereby evaluating the coupled geometrical and electronic effects.
Unlike prior studies focusing on individual buffer materials or limited
parameter spaces, this work provides a unified comparative framework for
assessing buffer-layer compatibility with CuO absorbers. The results
show that TiO2 achieves the highest simulated power
conversion efficiency of 12.48%, followed by ZnO at 12.00% and CdS at
11.60%. While CdS remains a widely adopted buffer layer in TFSCs,
TiO2 demonstrates improved compatibility with CuO in terms of
band alignment, optical transparency, and parameter tolerance. The
reported efficiencies represent upper-bound estimates due to idealized
interface and optical assumptions inherent to SCAPS-1D simulations;
therefore, experimental validation and
interface-defect modeling are required to confirm device performance
under realistic fabrication conditions.
