Abstract
We have investigated two complementary nanostructures, nanocavity and nanopillar arrays, for light absorption enhancement in depleted heterojunction colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells. A facile complementary fabrication process is demonstrated for patterning these nanostructures over the large area required for light trapping in photovoltaic devices. The simulation results show that both proposed periodic nanostructures can effectively increase the light absorption in CQD layer of the solar cell throughout the near-infrared region where CQD solar cells typically exhibit weak light absorption. The complementary fabrication process for implementation of these nanostructures can pave the way for large-area, inexpensive light trapping implementation in nanostructured solar cells.
Highlights
IntroductionDespite all the achievements in colloidal quantum dot (CQD) synthesis, surface treatment and film deposition technologies [2], the power conversion efficiency of this type of solar cell continues to lag behind traditional silicon solar cells
In the last few years, colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells have received a great deal of attention due to their potential for large-area, high-throughput, and low-cost manufacturing [1].Despite all the achievements in CQD synthesis, surface treatment and film deposition technologies [2], the power conversion efficiency of this type of solar cell continues to lag behind traditional silicon solar cells
After nanosphere mask formation, oxygen plasma is employed to shrink the nanospheres to ideal diameter needed for the intended structure through reactive ion etching (RIE)
Summary
Despite all the achievements in CQD synthesis, surface treatment and film deposition technologies [2], the power conversion efficiency of this type of solar cell continues to lag behind traditional silicon solar cells. Effectively increasing optical path lengths in the absorbing material through structuring without any change in light absorbing material’s thickness, is one option to overcome the aforementioned trade-off [6]. Periodic nanostructured gratings have been extensively explored for light trapping in various types of thin-film solar cells and various silicon or metamaterial-based structures have been proposed, such as nanopillar, nanowire, nanohole, and pyramid arrays [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. The downside, is that these structures are difficult to fabricate due to their complicated structures or material compositions
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