Amorphous carbon nitride (a-C:N) thin films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition technique at room temperature using a camphoric carbon target with different nitrogen partial pressures in the range from 0.1 to 800 mTorr. The room temperature conductivity (σ RT ) is found to increase with N incorporation, which may be due to the lattice vibrations leading to the scattering of the charge carriers by the N atoms and the more amorphous nature of the carbon films. Study of activation energy reveals that the Fermi level of the a-C:N film moves from the valence band to near the conduction band edge through the midgap. The current–voltage photovoltaic characteristics of a-C:N/p-Si cells under 1 sun air-mass 1.5 (AM 1.5) illumination condition (100 mW/cm2, 25°C) are improved up to 30 mTorr and deteriorate thereupon. The maximum of open-circuit voltage (V oc ) and short-circuit current density (J sc ) for the cells are observed to be approximately 292 mV and 9.02 mA/cm2, respectively. The highest energy conversion efficiency (η) and fill factor (FF) were found to be approximately 1.47% and 56%, respectively.
Structural Characterization of Amorphous Carbon Nitride Thin Films Prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition.
