Abstract
Silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays for radial p-n junction solar cells offer potential advantages of light trapping effects and quick charge collection. Nevertheless, lower open circuit voltages (Voc) lead to lower energy conversion efficiencies. In such cases, the performance of the solar cells depends critically on the quality of the SiNW interfaces. In this study, SiNW core-shell solar cells have been fabricated by growing crystalline silicon (c-Si) nanowires via the metal-assisted chemical etching method and by depositing hydrogenated amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) via the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method. The influence of deposition parameters on the coverage and, consequently, the passivation and photovoltaic properties of α-Si:H layers on SiNW solar cells have been analyzed.
Highlights
Nanowire-based solar cells hold promise for generation photovoltaics
We have studied the effect of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) deposition conditions of α-Si:H, such as plasma power and deposition time, on the coverage of α-Si:H layers on Silicon nanowire (SiNW)
The thickness of α-Si: H layer and minority lifetime of the SiNW array was found to increase with the increase of deposition time and plasma power
Summary
Nanowire-based solar cells hold promise for generation photovoltaics. In particular, silicon micro/nanowires have attracted considerable interest due to their potential advantages, including light trapping effects to enhance broadband optical absorption [1,2] and the possibility to engineer radial p-n junctions using a core-shell structure, which in turn increases the carrier collection [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. In a radial p-n junction - a promising approach - crystalline silicon (c-Si) micro/nanowires are used as core and hightemperature diffused layers or low-temperature deposited silicon layers form the shell. These core-shell micro/ nanowire array structures are expected to reduce the requirements on the quality and the quantity of Si needed for the fabrication of solar cell. Compared to Si microwire (SiMW) solar cells [5,6,7,8], which are formed by deep reactive ion etching, the Voc of SiNW solar cells is typically lower This could be attributed to the large surface-to-volume ratio exhibited by SiNWs. Essentially, the performance of SiNW solar cells depends critically on the quality of the SiNW interfaces. Surface passivation of SiNWs is a critical process for solar cell applications
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