The invention discloses a cuprous-oxide-based heterojunction photocathode and a preparation method thereof. The cuprous-oxide-based heterojunction photocathode structurally comprises a gold electrode layer, a cuprous oxide layer, an aluminum-doped zinc oxide layer, a titanium dioxide layer and a platinum cocatalyst layer from bottom to top and is packaged with epoxy resin. The preparation method of the cuprous-oxide-based heterojunction photocathode comprises the steps that firstly, a cuprous oxide slice is prepared through a thermal oxidation method, and the cuprous oxide slice serves as a light absorption layer and also serves as a substrate of the photocathode; a layer of gold electrode is deposited on one side of the cuprous oxide substrate, a wire is led out, and the side is packaged with epoxy resin glue; then, after the other side of the cuprous oxide substrate is etched, the aluminum-doped zinc oxide layer and the titanium dioxide layer are deposited in sequence, and the edges are packaged through the epoxy resin glue; and finally, platinum particles are deposited on the surface of titanium dioxide to serve as cocatalysts. By means of the cuprous-oxide-based heterojunction photocathode and the preparation method of the cuprous-oxide-based heterojunction photocathode, the difficulty in preparing the photocathode with the cuprous oxide substrate prepared through the thermal oxidation method is greatly lowered, the preparation process is simple, the light current is high, and wide development prospect is achieved.