Photovoltaic characteristics of boron doped amorphous carbon films deposited by pulsed laser deposition using graphite target

This paper reports on the successful deposition of boron (B) doped carbon films (p-C(B)) and fabrication of p-C(B)/n-Si solar cells by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique at room temperature using graphite target. The B content in the film was determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to be in the range of 0.2-1.7 atomic percentage. The photovoltaic values of the device, a maximum open circuit voltage, V_oc= 250 mV and short circuit current density, J_sc = 2.113 mA/cm² were obtained, when exposed to AM 1.5 illumination (100 mW/cm², 25°C). The maximum energy conversion efficiency was found tentatively to be about, η = 0.2%, together with the fill factor, FF= 45%. In this paper, the dependence of the B content on electrical and optical properties of the p-C(B) films and the photovoltaic characteristic of the p-C(B)/n-Si structure photovoltaic solar cells are discussed.