Energy transfer in nanowire solar cells with photon-harvesting shells

Abstract

The concept of a nanowire solar cell with photon-harvesting shells is presented. In this architecture, organic molecules which absorb strongly in the near infrared where silicon absorbs weakly are coupled to silicon nanowires ͑SiNWs͒. This enables an array of 7-m-long nanowires with a diameter of 50 nm to absorb over 85% of the photons above the bandgap of silicon. The organic molecules are bonded to the surface of the SiNWs forming a thin shell. They absorb the low-energy photons and subsequently transfer the energy to the SiNWs via Förster resonant energy transfer, creating free electrons and holes within the SiNWs. The carriers are then separated at a radial p-n junction in a nanowire and extracted at the respective electrodes. The shortness of the nanowires is expected to lower the dark current due to the decrease in p-n junction surface area, which scales linearly with wire length. The theoretical power conversion efficiency is 15%. To demonstrate this concept, we measure a 60% increase in photocurrent from a planar silicon-on-insulator diode when a 5 nm layer of poly͓2-methoxy-5-͑2Ј-ethyl-hexyloxy͒-1,4-phenylene vinylene is applied to the surface of the silicon. This increase is in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions.

Enhancing Photocurrent Efficiencies by Resonance Energy Transfer in CdTe Quantum Dot Multilayers: Towards Rainbow Solar Cells

“…FRET between two chromophores in photoactive films has recently been shown to improve the overall conversion efficiencies. Such photocurrent amplifications resulted from funneling excitons towards the heterojunction interfaces, where they split rather than recombine 6–25…”

Surface passivation effects in silicon nanowires

“…SiNWs can be used as thermoelectric materials because of their low thermal but high electrical conductivity [6,7]. SiNWs also have potential application as solar cells to convert light into electricity [8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Principal processes of organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells using the example of ZnPc with ZnO

“…The pressure was kept at around 3 × 10 −3 mbar and the thickness could be tuned by the sputtering time with a constant rate of 5 nm min −1 . To see whether an improvement of the solar cell efficiency could be achieved by introducing nanowires (NWs) we also grew NWs as nanostructured electrodes. They were synthesized by the vapour liquid solid (VLS) method .…”