Fabrication and characteristics of N-I-P structure amorphous silicon solar cells with CdS quantum dots on nanopillar array

Abstract

This work presents the photovoltaic properties improvement of N-I-P structure amorphous silicon solar cells with nano-patterned structure and CdS quantum dots. The surface morphology of the amorphous silicon solar cells was examined by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The electrical properties of the nano-patterned structure and CdS quantum dots were measured by the external quantum efficiency (EQE) and current-voltage (I-V). The short circuit current is increased from 20.3 ± 0.6 mA/cm2 to 37.6 ± 0.8 mA/cm2. The power conversion efficiency is increased from 6.63% to 18.45%. For further investigation, the excitation spectrums of reflectance, photoluminescence, and absorbance of solar cells were measured and analyzed. Our results indicate that the solar cells with nano-patterned structure and CdS quantum dots might be competitive as a novel solar cell.