Heterojunction solar cell based on n-MoS2/p-InP

Abstract

In recent days few-layered or ultrathin molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) one of the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is gaining serious attention for photovoltaics. TMD materials are able to absorb up to 5–10% of incident sunlight in less than 1 nm thickness to achieve an order of magnitude higher solar light absorption. Metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) was employed to obtain atomic layered MoS2 on SiO2/Si substrate which subsequently transferred on InP substrate using a simple transfer protocol. We realized photovoltaic operation in atomically few-layered MoS2 by forming a type II heterojunction with low dopped p-InP, instead of widely used p-Si. The built-in electric field arised due to interface between n-MoS2 and p-InP heterojunction is beneficial for the photogenerated carrier generation and separation. The solar cell device could achieve a power conversion efficiency of 0.11% with 1.87 mA/cm2 current density, first attempt of TMD based solar cell on InP substrate, demonstrating a promising solar cell performance. The obtained results pave the way for the integration of TMD materials with the InP substrate to obtain efficient solar cells.