Broadband enhancement of coaxial heterogeneous gallium arsenide single‐nanowire solar cells

Li, Xiao Feng; Zhan, Yaohui; Wang, Chinhua

doi:10.1002/pip.2480

Cited by 38 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…24, 25 It is both experimentally and theoretically proved that one-dimensional NWs can have better light absorption characteristics than their bulk counterparts, and an apparent efficiency of 40% beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit has be accomplished by vertical-structured GaAs photovoltaics. 10,[26][27][28] It is therefore the horizontal NW channel configured in this work would also possess higher light absorption characteristics than the one of thin films even though the NW absorption thickness is lower, which show the low-cost advantages of NW based photovoltaics as well as photodetectors by the resonant light absorption effect. On the other hand, the grown GaAs NWs are single crystalline with minimal crystal defects observed due to the relatively higher Ga supersaturation in Au catalytic seeds during the growth process as reported in our previous study.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Performance GaAs Nanowire Solar Cells for Flexible and Transparent Photovoltaics

Han

Yang

Wang

et al. 2015

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Among many available photovoltaic technologies at present, gallium arsenide (GaAs) is one of the recognized leaders for performance and reliability; however, it is still a great challenge to achieve cost-effective GaAs solar cells for smart systems such as transparent and flexible photovoltaics. In this study, highly crystalline long GaAs nanowires (NWs) with minimal crystal defects are synthesized economically by chemical vapor deposition and configured into novel Schottky photovoltaic structures by simply using asymmetric Au-Al contacts. Without any doping profiles such as p-n junction and complicated coaxial junction structures, the single NW Schottky device shows a record high apparent energy conversion efficiency of 16% under air mass 1.5 global illumination by normalizing to the projection area of the NW. The corresponding photovoltaic output can be further enhanced by connecting individual cells in series and in parallel as well as by fabricating NW array solar cells via contact printing showing an overall efficiency of 1.6%. Importantly, these Schottky cells can be easily integrated on the glass and plastic substrates for transparent and flexible photovoltaics, which explicitly demonstrate the outstanding versatility and promising perspective of these GaAs NW Schottky photovoltaics for next-generation smart solar energy harvesting devices.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Performance GaAs Nanowire Solar Cells for Flexible and Transparent Photovoltaics

Han

Yang

Wang

et al. 2015

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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“…We first introduce the fundamental theory and governing equations for optoelectronic simulation: [16][17][18] …”

Section: Model and Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Optoelectronic insights into the photovoltaic losses from photocurrent, voltage, and energy perspectives

Shang

et al. 2017

AIP Advances

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Photocurrent and voltage losses are the fundamental limitations for improving the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. It is indeed that a comprehensive and quantitative differentiation of the performance degradation in solar cells will promote the understanding of photovoltaic physics as well as provide a useful guidance to design highly-efficient and cost-effective solar cells. Based on optoelectronic simulation that addresses electromagnetic and carrier-transport responses in a coupled finite-element method, we report a detailed quantitative analysis of photocurrent and voltage losses in solar cells. We not only concentrate on the wavelength-dependent photocurrent loss, but also quantify the variations of photocurrent and operating voltage under different forward electrical biases. Further, the device output power and power losses due to carrier recombination, thermalization, Joule heat, and Peltier heat are studied through the optoelectronic simulation. The deep insight into the gains and losses of the photocurrent, voltage, and energy will contribute to the accurate clarifications of the performance degradation of photovoltaic devices, enabling a better control of the photovoltaic behaviors for high performance.

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“…It is obvious that n and p profiles of the two SNSCs are primarily dependent on the initial doping conditions. Although the photo-generated charge carriers play a key role in the power output of SNSCs, the n and p concentrations are slightly modified, which are too little to change the profiles of carrier concentration distribution 44 . And thus, the corresponding ψ profiles of SNSCs under illumination case display the similar distribution as these of the thermal equilibrium in the dark, ensuring a large V bi and V oc .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opto-electric investigation for Si/organic heterojunction single-nanowire solar cells

Yang

Liu

Sheng

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Recently, silicon single nanowire solar cells (SNSCs) serving as the sustainable self-power sources have been integrated into optoelectronic nanodevices under the driver of technology and economy. However, conventional SNSC cannot provide the minimum energy consumption for the operation of nanodevices due to its low power conversion efficiency (PCE). Here, we propose an innovative approach to combine the n-type silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with p-type poly(3,4-ethylthiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) to form the p + n heterojunction, which shows superior opto-electric performances. Besides, PEDOT:PSS also acts as a natural anti-reflection coating (ARC) with an excellent light-trapping capability, especially in the short-wavelength range. Importantly, the photovoltaic performances of Si/PEDOT:PSS SNSC can be well maintained even in large surface recombination velocity, due to the efficient field-effect passivation of PEDOT:PSS. The minority carrier concentration at outer surface of shallow p + n heterojunction is greatly reduced by the electric field, drastically suppressing the surface recombination compared to the conventional p-i-n homojunction SNSC. Furthermore, larger junction area of p + n heterojunction facilitates the separation of photo-generated charge carriers. These results demonstrate that the Si/PEDOT:PSS SNSC is a promising alternative for micro power application.

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Broadband enhancement of coaxial heterogeneous gallium arsenide single‐nanowire solar cells

Cited by 38 publications

References 23 publications

High-Performance GaAs Nanowire Solar Cells for Flexible and Transparent Photovoltaics

High-Performance GaAs Nanowire Solar Cells for Flexible and Transparent Photovoltaics

Optoelectronic insights into the photovoltaic losses from photocurrent, voltage, and energy perspectives

Opto-electric investigation for Si/organic heterojunction single-nanowire solar cells

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