الفهرس 
Introduction and MotivationOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Transition metal-semiconductor oxides are intriguing materials that can be made inexpensively and have unique properties. As a result, the application of these materials in next-generation photovoltaics is both promising and intriguing. Zinc, Titanium, and Copper oxides were employed in next-generation solar cells in this thesis. Thin films of doped ZnO, doped TiO2, and Cu2O were synthesized by the low-cost and environmentally friendly techniques of hydrothermal, chemical bath deposition, spin coating, and electrodeposition synthesis. The thin films were characterized by structural, optical, and electrical techniques while the cells were tested by current versus voltage and efficiency measurements.This work explored solution-processed transition metal semiconductor oxides (ZnO, TiO2, and Cu2O) with a focus on their characterization from the materials science point of view as well as their application in inorganic and organic solar cells. In these cells, inorganic materials are used as n-type (doped ZnO) and Cu2O is used as p-type. While the other type is the organic solar cell, we used the doped TiO2 layer as the transfer layer and the conjugated polymers (P3HT: PC61BM blend) as the active layer. The first task was the synthesis of vertical alignment of doped (Al, Ni, Co) ZnO nanorods on a conducting glass substrate using aqueous chemical growth and hydrothermal methods at a low temperature for doped ZnO and spin coating for doped TiO2. The second task was to find p-type materials from organic or inorganic materials that give good efficiency. We used poly (3-hexyl-thiophene) (P3HT) as a p-type with n- Al2O3 doped TiO2 to fabricate solar cells. Cuprous oxide (Cu2O), which is a synthesis with electrodeposition technique, was used as p-type with n-doped ZnO to fabricate solar cells. All samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, UV, Raman Spectroscopy, FTIR, and PL techniques. Solar cell devices are characterized by I-V characteristic curve studies by using multiple source-measure units (SMUs) (2400 SourceMeter® SMU Instrum Inorganic solar cells have been created with a device structure of ITO/ZnO/Cu2O/Al and ITO/Al-doped ZnO/Cu2O/Al configurations. The power conversion efficiency of the inorganic solar cell with 6% Al-doped ZnO is ɳ= 0.282%, which is greater than the power conversion efficiency of the ZnO-based solar cell (ɳ= 0.17%). The inverted-type organic solar cells have been fabricated as a structure of FTO/Al2O3: TiO2/P3HT: C61BM/MoO3/Ag. The power conversion efficiency of the fabricated solar cells increased from 2.8% to 3.47% at 0.5% Al2O3 doping concentration. The solar cells’ performance has been improved by adjusting the concentration of Al2O3. The findings show that adding Al2O3 to TiO2 films improves power conversion efficiency significantly. The results obtained from cells with doped semiconductors were compared with the results obtained from cells with undoped semiconductors. This comparison showed that the use of semiconductor doping can lead to more efficient solar cells. Compared to an undoped device, this type of device is more efficient, which means it could have good photovoltaic performance.