Abstract

Zinc oxide and Copper oxide p–n junctions are promising materials which can be used to create electronic
devices such as diodes, transistors, and solar cells. The present work investigates the absorbance and
percentage transmittance of zinc oxide and copper oxide for use in solar cells using screen printing
techniques. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and Copper oxide (CuO) were successfully deposited on a glass slide
substrate, Zinc oxide produced white film after deposition, CuO produced blackish film after deposition,
three different samples of each was produced, the unannealed sample, sample annealed at 150°C for 30
minutes and sample annealed at 200°C for 30 minutes, The UV – Visible spectroscopy analysis was
carried out to determine the absorption radiation and percentage transmittance of the annealed and
unannealed samples of ZnO and CuO layers of a thin film using UV-VIS Spectrometer. Among all the
samples, CuO sample annealed at 150°C and CuO sample annealed at 200°C has the strong absorption at
wavelength range of 920 – 970 nm and 880 - 902 nm respectively, likewise the ZnO sample annealed at
150°C and ZnO sample annealed at 200°C has the absorption values at the range of wavelength 340 – 370 nm and 350 – 370 nm respectively, which made the thin film appropriate for electronic devices applications such as diodes, transistors, and solar cell. For the percentage transmittance result, CuO sample annealed at 150°C for 30 minutes has the higher percentage transmittance at 790 nm wavelength.

Key words: Absorbance, Transmittance, Annealing, Screen printing, Solar cell.