Potentiostatic and galvanostatic two-step electrodeposition of semiconductor Cu2O films and its photovoltaic application

Electrodeposition is of great interest for a large number of applications, especially in low-cost thin film solar cells. In this work, Cu2O films were electrodeposited firstly with potentiostatic and galvanostatic modes, respectively. The trends of current density and applied potential were systematically studied in the deposition process, and some drawbacks were revealed within the two deposition modes. In order to remove the drawbacks, potentiostatic and galvanostatic two-step electrodeposition was developed to prepare Cu2O films. The optical absorption and surface photovoltage properties of the prepared Cu2O films were studied. Finally, the two-step electrodeposition was used to construct Cu2O based solar cells. The two-step electrodeposition will be an optimized method to construct high-quality semiconductor film based solar cells.