Design and fabrication of silicon nanowires towards efficient solar cells

Abstract

The recent rise of semiconductor nanowires opens new opportunities for realizing high efficiency photovoltaic devices at low cost due to the unique one-dimensional structure with remarkable electrical and optical properties. Particularly, silicon nanowires (SiNWs), as one of the most earthabundant materials, have been investigated worldwide to develop cost-effective solar cells. Great efforts have been devoted to fabricating ordered/disordered SiNWs using cost-effective approaches and achieving optimized structural parameters, such as array periodicity, nanowire morphology, length and diameter. Systematic theoretical investigations along with experimental studies on optical and electrical properties of SiNWs have been carried out. These efforts have led to obtaining remarkable improvement of the power conversion efficiency of SiNW solar cells from <1% to >10% in the last few years. However, till now, the power conversion efficiency of these SiNW solar cells is far from satisfactory for any commercial applications compared with the traditional bulk silicon solar cells. Further development of SiNW solar cells requires better understanding of the optical and electrical properties of the nanowire solar cells. Improvement in fabrication of high quality nanowires in a controlled fashion also plays a significant role in nanowire solar cell design and fabrication. To guide future development of SiNW solar cells, the recent work on SiNWs is reviewed. Following that, various techniques aiming to achieve high quality nanowires at low cost are introduced. Both bottom-up and top-down techniques are discussed. Then, electrical properties and various types of solar cells based on SiNWs are discussed. Finally challenges and prospects of SiNW solar cells are presented.

Two-Dimensional Modeling of Silicon Nanowires Radial Core-Shell Solar Cells

“…Among that, silicon nanowires (SiNWs) core-shell solar cells with a p-n junction were reported as promising solutions for energy efficient conversion. The excited carriers for planar substrate need longer distance to be extracted compared with radial SiNWs solar cell which has the advantage to enhance the cell efficiency due to the orthogonal direction between carrier collection and light absorption [8]. It was pointed that wire dimensions such as height, radius, cycle, and junction formed parameters such as surface recombination rate, junction technical process, and doping concentration all have effects on light absorption and electrical characteristics [9].…”

Optimization Twist Angle of Darrius Wind Turbine with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulation for Highway Area Application

“…Today, street lighting uses solar cell technology that can absorb solar radiation by utilizing silicon materials that can transform solar radiation into electrical energy that is generally applied in highways area. Unfortunately, solar cells still have a weakness factor that is the increase of solar radiation absorbed by solar cells requires more silicon thickness, and silicon purity processes still have a high price [2]. The wind energy can be an alternative energy to complement solar energy, where wind energy has a high potential to be utilized, especially in highway areas.…”

Effect of Surface Morphology and Dispersion Media on the Properties of PEDOT:PSS/n-Si Hybrid Solar Cell Containing Functionalized Graphene

“…As evidenced by recent literature reports, silicon nanowire (SiNW) array exhibits not only perfect absorption but also a high surface to volume ratio compared to planar Si. Consequently, the next generation solar cells based on SiNW have attracted a great interest of scientists, engineers, and technology developers due to their potential for higher conversion efficiency and being cost-effective compared to the conventional bulk Si solar cell generation [6][7][8][9][10]. Unfortunately, all-inorganic solar cells based on SiNW usually require energy-intensive semiconductor processes, including high-temperature thermal diffusion, thermal annealing of the electrodes, and high-vacuum 2 Advances in Materials Science and Engineering chemical deposition processes and hence it will lead to increase the manufacturing costs.…”