Synthesis of Si/SiO2 core-shell nanowire arrays and broadband anti-reflection effects in diluted Si nanowire arrays by adjusting dielectric shell thickness.

A low filling ratio and enhanced absorption is needed to enable the full potential of Si nanowire (NW) arrays for optoelectronic applications. In this paper, we report a versatile, scalable fabrication technique that uses nanosphere lithography (NSL) patterning for the synthesis of vertically aligned Si and Si/SiO2 NW arrays. The optical reflection of the NW arrays can be substantially suppressed by the addition of the transparent shell. Meanwhile, by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation, we find that the absorption enhancement in the core Si NW can be obtained by adding the transparent shell. The special absorption enhancement of the Si NW arrays with a core-shell structure can be theoretically understood by modal analysis. The absorption in such Si NW array structures is very sensitive to the thickness of transparent coating. By the addition of a SiO2 shell layer, the absorption in the inner Si NW array can be substantially enhanced. Furthermore, significant absorption enhancement and broadband anti-reflection effects can be achieved by the diluted Si NWs combined with the single dielectric shell.

On-Demand Fabrication of Si/SiO2 Nanowire Arrays by Nanosphere Lithography and Subsequent Thermal Oxidation.

We demonstrate the fabrication of the large-area arrays of vertically aligned Si/SiO2 nanowires with full tunability of the geometry of the single nanowires by the metal-assisted chemical etching technique and the following thermal oxidation process. To fabricate the geometry controllable Si/SiO2 nanowire (NW) arrays, two critical issues relating with the size control of polystyrene reduction and oxide thickness evolution are investigated. Through analyzing the morphology evolutions of polystyrene particles, we give a quantitative description on the diameter variations of polystyrene particles with the etching time of plasma etching. Based on this, pure Si NW arrays with controllable geometry are generated. Then the oxide dynamic of Si NW is analyzed by the extended Deal-Grove model. By control, the initial Si NWs and the thermal oxidation time, the well-aligned Si/SiO2 composite NW arrays with controllable geometry are obtained.

Ti/Au Cathode for Electronic transport material-free organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells.

We have fabricated organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cell that uses a Ti/Au multilayer as cathode and does not use electron transport materials, and achieved the highest power conversion efficiency close to 13% with high reproducibility and hysteresis-free photocurrent curves. Our cell has a Schottky planar heterojunction structure (ITO/PEDOT:PSS/perovskite/Ti/Au), in which the Ti insertion layer isolate the perovskite and Au layers, thus proving good contact between the Au and perovskite and increasing the cells' shunt resistance greatly. Moreover, the Ti/Au cathode in direct contact with hybrid perovskite showed no reaction for a long-term exposure to the air, and can provide sufficient protection and avoid the perovskite and PEDOT:PSS layers contact with moisture. Hence, the Ti/Au based devices retain about 70% of their original efficiency after 300 h storage in the ambient environment.

Absorption enhancement of GaInP nanowires by tailoring transparent shell thicknesses and its application in III-V nanowire/Si film two-junction solar cells.

A non-absorbing transparent shell is proposed to be coated on the outer surface of the core photoactive GaInP nanowire array (NWA) of the III-V nanowire (NW)/Si film two-junction solar cell. Interestingly, the diluted (at the filling ratio of 0.25) GaInP NWA with core / transparent shell structure can absorb more light than that in bare denser (at the filling ratio of 0.5) NWA. This allows for less source material consumption during the fabrication of III-V NWA/Si film two-junction cell. Meanwhile, the condition of current matching between the top III-V NWA and Si film sub cell can be easily fulfilled by tailoring the coating thickness of the transparent coating. Beyond the advantages on light absorption, the surface passivation effects introduced by the addition of some transparent dielectric coatings can reduce the surface recombination rate at the top NWA sub cell surface. This facilitates the effective extraction of photo-generated carriers and enhances output stability of the top NWA sub cell. From electrical simulation, a power conversion efficiency of 29.9% can be obtained at the optimized coating geometry.

Optical simulations of P3HT/Si nanowire array hybrid solar cells.

An optical simulation of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/Si nanowire array (NWA) hybrid solar cells was investigated to evaluate the optical design requirements of the system by using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Steady improvement of light absorption was obtained with increased P3HT coating shell thickness from 0 to 80 nm on Si NWA. Further increasing the thickness caused dramatic decrease of the light absorption. Combined with the analysis of ultimate photocurrents, an optimum geometric structure with a coating P3HT thickness of 80 nm was proposed. At this structure, the hybrid solar cells show the most efficient light absorption. The optimization of the geometric structure and further understanding of the optical characteristics may contribute to the development for the practical experiment of the promising hybrid solar cells.