Controllable in situ photo-assisted chemical deposition of CdSe quantum dots on ZnO/CdS nanorod arrays and its photovoltaic application

Abstract

Compound semiconductors have been widely applied in the energy field as light-harvesting materials, conducting substrates and other functional parts. Nevertheless, to effectively grow them in various forms toward objective applications, limitations have often been met to achieving high growth rate, simplicity of method and controllability of growing processes simultaneously. In this work, we have grown a uniform CdSe layer on ZnO/CdS nanorod arrays by a novel in situ photo-assisted chemical deposition method. The morphology and quality of the as-formed material could be significantly influenced by tuning the optical parameters of the injected light. Due to the effect of injected light on the key reactions during the growth, a modified natural light with removal of the UV and IR components seems to be more suitable than monochromic light. An efficiency of 3.59% was achieved without any additional treatment, significantly higher than the efficiency of 2.88% of the sample by conventional CBD method under similar conditions with growth rate one order of magnitude higher. In general, the result has suggested its potential importance for other compound materials and opto-electronic devices.