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In this work, optical–structural and morphological behavior when Nd is incorporated into ZnO is studied. ZnO and Nd-doped ZnO (ZnO-Nd) films were deposited at 900 °C on Silicon n-type substrates (100) by using the Hot Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition (HFCVD) technique. For this, pellets were made by from powders of ZnO(s) and a mixture of ZnO(s):Nd(OH)3(s). The weight percent of the mixture ZnO:Nd(OH)3 in the pellet is 1:3. The gaseous precursor generation was carried out by chemical decomposition of the pellets using atomic hydrogen which was produced by a tungsten filament at 2000 °C. For the ZnO film, diffraction planes (100), (002), (101), (102), (110), and (103) were found by XRD. For the ZnO-Nd film, its planes are displaced, indicating the incorporation of Nd into the ZnO. EDS was used to confirm the Nd in the ZnO-Nd film with an atomic concentration (at%) of Nd = 10.79. An improvement in photoluminescence is observed for the ZnO-Nd film; this improvement is attributed to an increase in oxygen vacancies due to the presence of Nd. The important thing about this study is that by the HFCVD method, ZnO-Nd films can be obtained easily and with very short times; in addition, some oxide compounds can be obtained individually as initial precursors, which reduces the cost compared to other techniques. Something interesting is that the incorporation of Nd into ZnO by this method has not yet been studied, and depending on the method used, the PL of ZnO with Nd can increase or decrease, and by the HFCVD method the PL of the ZnO film, when Nd is incorporated, increases more than 15 times compared to the ZnO film.

Simulation and analysis of solar cells based on the heterojunction of zinc oxide doped with aluminum (AZO) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) with the structure (Al/AZO/CdTe/NiO/Ni) using the Simulator of the capacitance of solar cells - 1 dimension (SCAPS-1D) has been presented in this paper. AZO is used as a window layer and Nickel oxide (NiO) has been introduced as a hole transport layer (HTL). Through the software, the effect of thickness, absorber (CdTe), and window (AZO) layers carrier concentration, operating temperature, and resistances (series and shunt) have been studied. Simulation results show that the solar cell performance can be greatly improved by adjusting the layer's thickness and carrier concentration, obtaining optimal values of 10 nm and 1018cm−3 for the AZO layer, while for the CdTe layer they were 2 μm and 1015cm−3. The optimum series and shunt resistances are in the range of 1–3 Ωcm2 and 1800–2200 Ωcm2 respectively. A maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.2% is achieved with an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.74 V, short circuit current density (Jsc) of 26.15 mA/cm2 and a fill factor (FF) of 72.83%, this shows AZO potential to be considered as an interesting material to replace CdS window layer.

Copper oxide (CuO) films were deposited onto glass substrates by the microwave assisted chemical bath deposition method, and varying the pH of the solution. The pH range was varied from 11.0 to 13.5, and the effects on the film properties were studied. An analytical study of the precursor solution was proposed to describe and understand the chemical reaction mechanisms that take place in the chemical bath at certain pH to produce the CuO film. A series of experiments were performed by varying the parameters of the analytical model from which the CuO films were obtained. The crystalline structure of the CuO films was studied using X-ray diffraction, while the surface morphology, chemical composition, and optical band-gap energy were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV–Vis spectrophotometry, respectively. The CuO films obtained exhibited a monoclinic crystalline phase, nanostructured surface morphology, stoichiometric Cu/O ratio of 50/50 at%, and band-gap energy value of 1.2 eV.

The effect of the gaseous atmosphere in the growth of gallium arsenide (GaAs) films was studied. The films have been grown by close-spaced vapor transport (CSVT) technique in a home-made hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) reactor using molecular hydrogen and molecular nitrogen as the transport agent. An important point about the gaseous atmosphere is the ease in creating volatile compounds when it makes contact with the GaAs source, this favors the transport of material in a CSVT system. Chemical reactions are proposed in order to understand the significant difference produced from the gaseous atmosphere. The films grown with hydrogen are (almost) continuous and have homogeneous layers with preferential orientation (111). The films grown with nitrogen are granular and rough layers with the coexistence of the orientations (111), (220) and (311) in the crystals. The incorporation of impurities in the films was corroborated by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) showing traces of oxygen and nitrogen for the case of the samples obtained with nitrogen. Films grown in a hydrogen atmosphere show a higher band gap than those grown in a nitrogen atmosphere. With the results of XRD and micro-Raman we observe a displacement and broadening of the peaks, characteristic of a structural disorder. The calculations of the FWHM allow us to observe the crystallinity degree and determine an approximate crystallite size using the Scherrer’s equation.