Puvaneswaran Chelvanathan

National University of Malaysia | ukm

This study involves the deposition of magnesium-doped zinc oxide (MZO) thin films through radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering, followed by annealing at temperatures of 350 °C, 450 °C, and 550 °C. Since there is no significant impact of annealing temperatures on MZO thin films, MZO and aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) were co-sputtered to depo...

A dual band flexible antenna based on a circularly polarized modified meshed patch antenna design. This article focuses on some of the most pressing issues in small satellite applications. The antenna optimization and improvement of antenna performance, such as radiation efficiency. As is well known, circular polarization is immune to the Faraday r...

Molybdenum (Mo) is a versatile refractory metal that has been widely used as back contact in thin film photovoltaic cells. However, Mo tends to react with oxygen in ambient environment which influences its original properties. In this study, Mo thin films were stored in different environments (in vacuum desiccator and open air) for 8760 h. Subseque...

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) play a pivotal role in advancing renewable energy to achieve United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), which aims to ensure universal access to affordable, sustainable, reliable and modern energy services. Aiming to enhance the performance of PSCs by replacing the typically used electron transport layers...

This study systematically analyses the performance differences between superstrate and substrate configurations in Sb2S3 thin-film solar cells using comprehensive numerical simulations. Factors such as absorber thickness, radiative recombination, defect density, operating temperature, and series and shunt resistances are examined for their impact o...

The most rapidly expanding type of solar cells are the Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs), because of its high device performance, ease of synthesis, high open-circuit voltage, and affordability. Despite these advantages, the development of perovskite-based solar cells continues to be impeded by the issues with perovskite stability and the utilization o...

Germanium selenide (GeSe) is a potential absorber material for thin film solar cells. However, many physical, electronic parameters and practical defect configurations that result in different effects on the performance of GeSe solar cells are not fully understood. In this study, a baseline of a GeSe thin film solar cell was designed and simulated...

The pursuit of enhancing the performance of silicon-based solar cells is pivotal for the progression of solar photovoltaics as the most potential renewable energy technologies. Despite the existence of sophisticated methods like diffusion and ion implantation for doping phosphorus into p-type silicon wafers in the semiconductor industry, there is a...

Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) photovoltaics, incorporating a thin film of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS), present a costeffective yet less efficient solar cell technology. Improving CdS/CdTe solar cell efficiency involves optimizing parameters like doping concentration and CdS layer thickness. However, limited research on cell defects necessitates a comprehensiv...

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is seen as a microstructure electrode due to its high energy density when applied in lithium rechargeable batteries such as lithium‐ion batteries (LIB) and lithium sulfur batteries (LSB). This review provides a systematic observation to evaluate the CZTS electrode capabilities from the perspective of electrode composition and its p...

The critical impact of sodium-doped molybdenum (MoNa) in shaping the MoSe2 interfacial layer, influencing the electrical properties of CIGSe/Mo heterostructures, and achieving optimal MoSe2 formation conditions, leading to improved hetero-contact quality. Notably, samples with a 600-nm-thick MoNa layer demonstrate the highest resistivity (73 μΩcm)...

The tetragonal crystal structured anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been conventionally used as an electron transport layer in emerging solar cells. Conventionally, a high-temperature process above 450 °C is indispensable to form crystallized TiO2 films with a well-defined mesoporous structure. Due to the temperature limitations of the flexible p...

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have shown a significant increase in power conversion efficiency (PCE) under laboratory circumstances from 2006 to the present, rising from 3.8% to an astonishing 25%. This scientific breakthrough corresponds to the changing energy situation and rising industrial potential. The flexible perovskite solar cell (FPSC), wh...

In this paper, we examine the impact of the precursor's mixing temperature and mixing protocol on the crystal structure and morphological and optical properties of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films. Four samples of CZTS thin films were synthesized with the sol-gel spin coating technique by previously mixing precursors at (a) 150℃ and (b) room temperature...

This study investigates the potential use of eco-friendly, all-inorganic CsSnI3 perovskite (PVK) as an absorber layer. Despite having higher temperature stability of CsSnI3,the challenge is to get a uniform and defect-free film that hinders the performance. To accomplish this goal, we investigated several PSC performance-related variables, includin...

In perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the instability concern and complex synthesis process of organic hole transport layers (HTL) have led researchers to focus on widely available inorganic NiOx as an effective alternative. Herein, an eco-friendly and cost-effective green synthesis method has been implemented to fabricate the NiOx thin film using aloe...

This research adopts a novel blended simulation approach (By SCAPS and FDTD) to design and modelling of Cs2AgBiBr6 perovskite solar cell and comprehensively investigates its photovoltaic parameters by incorporating NiO...

The conventional electron transport layer (ETL) TiO2 has been widely used in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), which have produced exceptional power conversion efficiencies (PCE), allowing the technology to be highly regarded and propitious. Nevertheless, the recent high demand for energy harvesters in wearable electronics, aerospace, and building int...

The non-vacuum sol-gel method for synthesizing CZTS thin films has proven to be a simple, cost-effective, and highly efficient approach that can be utilized across a wide range of temperatures. In this study, our focus was on synthesizing CZTS at room temperature (RT) and 1500C, with the chemical reagents sequentially mixed at 30-minute intervals....

Reducing CdTe absorber layer thickness is one of the approaches to minimize the material consumption and subsequently reduce the production cost of CdTe module. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the possibilities of increasing the efficiency of ultrathin CdTe solar cell by inserting a MgZnO (MZO) high resistivity transparent (HR...

High conductivity, density, and uniform Copper(I) Iodide (CuI) as Hole Transporting Layer (HTL) was prepared directly on an Indium-doped Tin Oxide (ITO) substrate. A new green solvent, namely Monoethanolamine (MEA) with no additional additives procedures was presented for the preparation, though the fabricated CuI films produced a notable result of...

In this study, we investigated the pathways for integration of perovskite and silicon solar cells through variation of the properties of the interconnecting layer (ICL). The user-friendly computer simulation software wxAMPS was used to conduct the investigation. The simulation started with numerical inspection of the individual single junction sub-...

Magnesium-doped Zinc Oxide, MgZnO (MZO) is a promising front contact material for CdTe solar cells application. In this study, MZO thin films are grown first by RF magnetron sputtering. Afterwards, MZO and Aluminium-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) are co-sputtered and subsequently annealed from 350 °C to 550 °C to modify the structural and optical propertie...

NiO x as a hole transport layer (HTL) has gained a lot of research interest in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), owing to its high optical transmittance, high power conversion efficiency, wide band-gap and ease of fabrication. In this work, four different nickel based-metal organic frameworks (MOFs) using 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (BTC), terepht...

The insertion of a highly resistive transparent (HRT) layer with the ability to transfer an optimum portion of the UV range of sunlight is targeted in this study by bandgap engineering through varying the thickness as well as the concentration of dopants. The integrability of ZnO and Mg-doped ZnO (MZO) as the potential HRT layers for CdTe solar cel...

The effect of Mo thin film deposition power in DC sputtering on the formation of a MoSe2 interfacial layer grown via the annealing of CIGSe/Mo precursors in an Se-free atmosphere was investigated. A Mo layer was deposited on glass substrates using the DC magnetron sputtering method. Its electrical resistivity, as well as its morphological, structur...

Various metal layers grown by e-beam evaporator have been studied to be used as metal contacts for scalable perovskite photovoltaic (PV) devices. The evaporated films consisting of gold (Au), silver (Ag), nickel (Ni), titanium (Ti), tin (Sn), copper (Cu), and molybdenum (Mo) were grown on glass substrates at room temperature with an optimized thick...

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) has been recognized as one of the efficient and cost-effective thin film solar cell materials with a direct band energy of 1.5 eV. CdTe has long been a leading material in fabrication of solar cell due to its high optical absorption coefficient and ideal band gap. Despite the advantages of CdTe PV technology, CdTe is facing...

Perovskite Solar Cells (PSC) are the fastest-growing generation of solar cells due to their high-power conversion efficiency (PCE) in a short period of time, simple synthesis process, high open-circuit voltage, and low cost. However, perovskite stability and the use of the toxic heavy metal of lead (Pb) are two significant challenges that still hau...

The silicon heterojunction solar cell (SHJ) is considered the dominant state-of-the-art silicon solar cell technology due to its excellent passivation quality and high efficiency. However, SHJ’s light management performance is limited by its narrow optical absorption in long-wave near-infrared (NIR) due to the front, and back tin-doped indium oxide...

In this letter, the effects of sulphurization time on the material properties of CTS thin film and concomitant device performance were investigated. A specified range of sulphurization time from 1 to 3 hours were carried out. Structural analyses confirmed that polycrystalline CTS were apparent in all samples prepared, with an intermediate secondary...

Despite the increasing trend of n-type silicon wafer utilization in the manufacturing of high-efficiency heterojunction solar cells due to the superior advantages over p-type counterparts, its high manufacturing cost remains to be one of the most crucial factors, which impedes its market share growth with state-of-the-art silicon heterojunction (SH...

CuCl2 solutions of various molarities were used to treat CdSe thin films produced by RF magnetron sputtering. In-depth investigation on the impacts of this treatment on CdSe thin films were studied. The structural investigation revealed that all as-grown films exhibited the hexagonal phase peak at the (101) plane. The crystalline and grain sizes in...

In the last two decades, research on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) has shown tremendous improvement with promising findings. It has become one of the alternative options in replacing conventional silicon-based photovoltaics. Recently, a study towards the flexible form of solar cells has gained the attention of researchers. The features possess...

CZTS quaternary semiconductors are gaining wider attention as a promising photoactive absorber material in thin film photovoltaic (PV) devices due to their optimum band gap of 1.5 eV and high absorption coefficient on the order of 10⁴ cm⁻¹. Besides the excellent PV material properties, CZTS also offers a possible pathway towards low cost and enviro...

Photovoltaics significantly contributes towards the emerging renewable energy drive. Amongst the available thin film solar cell technologies, presently CdTe is leading at commercial state. CdS is being widely used as window layer in CdTe solar cell but challenged with toxicity. Therefore, this project explores the feasibility of CdSe as alternative...

Unambiguously layer by layer (LBL) assembly of graphene quantum dots (GQDs), and dye (GQDs/dye) on TiO2 photoanode is the traditional and straightforward approach in the fabrication of graphene quantum dot-cosensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). Unfortunately, limited light absorption and low affinity of GQDs to TiO2 surface shadow the advantages of LBL...

This work investigated the thermoelectric properties of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films deposited on the soda-lime glass using spin-coating techniques with different layers. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirms the increase of the layer number leads to improve the crystallite size and all the films exhibit tetragonal structure with the presence of...

In the current time, transparent and semitransparent solar cells in photovoltaic industry have drawn important attention owing to their potential use as solar windows, and energy harvesting devices for building, vehicle integration and flexible electronics. In this work, a semitransparent thin film heterojunction solar cells device structure of p-C...

The demand for a reliable alternative renewable energy is skyrocketing given the detrimental effect of conventional energy sources on the environment and its rapidly depleting global supply. While Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS)-based photovoltaic devices have gained a foothold through enhanced energy conversion efficiency, efforts are still required to further b...

The influence of Molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) as an interfacial layer between Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layer and Molybdenum (Mo) back contact in a conventional CIGS thin-film solar cell was investigated numerically using SCAPS-1D (a Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator). Using graded bandgap profile of the absorber layer that consist of both back...

Over the last decade, optically transparent antennas have been the focus of study for applications ranging from satellite networking to window embedded telecommunications. In this letter, the feasibility of DC-sputtered GZO thin films as an active material for transparent antenna application is briefly investigated. We commence by showing that the...

The conditions under which thin films are deposited are the most important parameter determining the physical performance of devices. In this work, we present the effect of preheating temperatures under N2 ambient conditions on the quality of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films. Herein we are interested in the structural, morphological, vibrational, optica...

Ternary semiconductor Cd x Zn (1−x) S thin films are prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) using N-methyl thiourea as an alternative sulfur precursor. Molar concentration of CdSO 4 has been varied from 0.01 M to 0.09 M during the fabrication process of Cd x Zn (1−x) S thin film. Effect of variation in Cd ²⁺ molar concentration on morphological...

Unambiguously layer by layer (LBL) assembly of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) and dye (GQDs/dye) on TiO 2 photoanode is the traditional and straightforward approach in the fabrication of graphene quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). Unfortunately, limited light absorption and low affinity of GQDs to TiO 2 surface shadow the advantages of LBL...

To increase energy demand, reliability, and increasing efficiency, thin-film solar cells get the main focus. Various types of solar cell like (Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS), Cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) based absorber compound now eliminated by CTS (Cu2SnS3) for different reason like toxicity, shortage and structural complexity...

Cadmium selenide (CdSe) thin films were grown on borosilicate glass substrates using the RF magnetron sputtering method. In this study, CdSe thin film was deposited at a deposition temperature in the range of 25 °C to 400 °C. The influence of deposition or growth temperature on the structural, morphological, and opto-electrical properties of CdSe f...

A CdS thin film buffer layer has been widely used as conventional n-type heterojunction partner both in established and emerging thin film photovoltaic devices. In this study, we perform numerical simulation to elucidate the influence of electrical properties of the CdS buffer layer, essentially in terms of carrier mobility and carrier concentratio...

To increase energy demand, reliability, and increasing efficiency, thin-film solar cells get the main focus. Various types of solar cell like (Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS), Cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) based absorber compound now eliminated by CTS (Cu2SnS3) for different reason like toxicity, shortage and structural complexity...

Recent years have illustrated the significantly pervasive interest in transparent antennas. The number and the popularity of transparent antenna applications have escalated dramatically. Although antenna applications are diverse and available across multiple platforms, some of these antennas are unsuitable for practical usage, particularly in cases...

Intrinsic Zinc Oxide (i-ZnO) is a promising material and has been applied in many types of solar cell structures, and particularly in thin film solar cells (TFSC) where it is normally used as the n-type layer or as normally addressed, the buffer or window layer. In this work, ZnO nanofilm was deposited by radio frequency (RF) sputtering technique a...

Kesterite structure Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) was deposited by RF magnetron sputtering, followed by ionic treatment using 0.25 M of NaF and 0.05 M of SnCl 2 before being sulphurized. The ionic treatment using sodium and tin improved the structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of the CZTS thin films. The added Na and Sn before the su...

In this study, preliminary investigation of different post-deposition treatments using materials such as cadmium chloride (CdCl2), magnesium chloride (MgCl2), copper chloride (CuCl2), and silver nitrate (AgNO3) has been reported for close-spaced sublimation (CSS) grown cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films. The treatment of CdTe thin films was conduc...

In this study, cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized via chemical precipitation, a facile and cost effective method. The effects of various cadmium salt concentration on the characteristics of CdS NPs has been analyzed to understand the structure properties relationship for optoelectronics applications. XRD, FESEM, Raman Spectr...

In this paper, Zn1-xMgxS thin films were co-sputtered on glass substrates using ZnS and MgS binary target materials under various applied RF power. The compositional ratio of Zn1-xMgxS films was varied by changing the RF power at an elevated temperature of 200 °C. The structural and optical properties were studied in detail. The structural analysis...

CdS is commonly used as a window layer in solar cell structure and is deposited by different growth techniques. In this study, a source-dependent comparative analysis on chemical bath deposition-grown CdS thin film focusing on different sulphur sources, namely, thiourea (NH2SCNH2) and N-methylthiourea (NH2CSNHCH3), was conducted. Moreover, the effe...

ZnO-nanowire arrays (ZNWAs) prepared via hydrothermal method of ZnO NPs/ITO substrates were used as the support to fabricate PbS/CdS/ZnO NWAs composited by using successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction. After confirmation of the structure by using XRD analysis and optical properties using Uv-vis spectroscopy. Hall-effect and photoelectrochem...

Chemical bath deposition (CBD) method was used to deposit CdS thin films on soda-lime glass substrates by using n-methylthiourea (NTU) as an alternative sulphur source and are compared with typical thiourea (TU) precursor. The sulphur source concentration was varied from 0.01 M to 0.1 M and the impact on the microstructural, surface morphology, opt...

This research article aims to examine the feasibility of several machine learning techniques to forecast the exergetic performance of a building‐integrated photovoltaic‐thermal (BIPVT) collector. In this regard, it uses multiple linear regression, multilayer perceptron, radial basis function regressor, sequential minimal optimization improved suppo...

This work presents the effects of the preheating environment on the microstructural, compositional, optical, and electrical properties of spin-coating-deposited CZTS thin films. CZTS precursors were prepared using a sol-gel method and deposited by spin-coating; they were subsequently preheated at 150 °C under different atmospheres (air, Ar, and N2)...

n this paper, Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator-1D (SCAPS-1D) was used to study the absorber layer defect density and n/i interface of perovskite solar cells versus various cell thickness values. The planar p-i-n structure was defined as PEDOT:PSS/Perovskite/CdS, and its performance was simulated. Power conversion efficiency > 25% can be achieved at...

In this study, nickel oxide (NiO) thin films were deposited on soda lime glass using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering at different growth (substrate) temperatures ranging from room temperature (RT) to 400 °C. The effects of substrate temperature on the structural, morphological, electrical, and optical properties were investigated. The XRD patt...