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Inorganic thin-film solar cell were fabricated by spin-coating using zinc oxide (ZnO) and silicon nanoparticles doped cupric oxide (Si-NPs-CuO) has been reported in this paper. The Si-nanoparticles (Si-NPs) was prepared from Si powder which was obtained from the sand of Padma river using aluminothermic process. The presence of Si-NPs was confirmed by Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). The size distribution of Si-NPs size was determined by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) technique. For the fabrication of heterojunction solar cell ZnO was spin-coated on FTO-coated glass substrate and then Si-NPs-doped CuO layers were deposited on ZnO. The produced heterostructure was annealed at 350 °C for 1 hr. J-V characteristics in dark and under 1.5 AM simulated light was investigated for the different thickness of ZnO and constant thickness Si-NPs-CuO. Among them the one with 7-layer of ZnO and 15-layer of Si-NPs-CuO showed an open circuit voltage of 0.433 volt and a short-circuit current density of 2.06 mA/cm2 indicating its possible use in thin-film solar cells.

The fabrication of Silicon Nanoparticles (Si-NPs) doped Cupric Oxide (Si-NPs-CuO) thin films and study of their optical properties have been presented in this paper. Silicon Nanoparticles was obtained from the Si powder extracted from the sand of the Padma river by mechanical milling. Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) on the thin-film confirmed the presence of Si-NPs. The size of the obtained Si-NPs was determined by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) technique. The doping of CuO with Si-NPs was done using simple one-pot synthesis method. Three, five and seven layers of Si-NPs doped CuO were deposited on glass substrate and then were annealed at 350 °C. It was found that the optical absorbance of Si-NPs-CuO thin films increased compared to similar thickness of CuO thin films. Whereas the reduced transmittance was observed for Si-NPs-CuO thin films compared to CuO thin films. Experimental observations indicate that Si-NPs-CuO thin films could be an efficient absorbing layer in thin-film solar cells.