Effect of the Cadmium Telluride Deposition Method on the Covering Degree of Electrodes Based on Copper Nanowire Arrays

In this work, we report the preparation of nanostructured electrodes based on dense arrays vertically-aligned copper (Cu) nanowires (NWs) to be subsequently covered by cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films, with great potential used within “substrate”-type photovoltaic cells AII-BVI heterojunctions. particular, multi-step protocol presented here involves an electrochemical synthesis procedure a supported anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) nanoporous template for first generating homogeneous array Cu NWs, which are then further embedded compact CdTe film. second stage, tested three deposition methods (vacuum thermal evaporation, VTE; radio-frequency magnetron sputtering, RF-MS; and deposition, ECD) use in obtaining layers potentially able consistently penetrate previously prepared NWs array. A comparative analysis was performed critically evaluate morphological, optical, structural properties deposited films. The results demonstrate that under optimized processing conditions, ECD approach could allow cost-effective fabrication absorber layer/collecting electrode CdTe/Cu interfaces improve charge collection mechanisms, turn more efficient solar semiconducting compounds.