Ingvar Åberg

InP Nanowire Array Solar Cells Achieving 13.8% Efficiency by Exceeding the Ray Optics Limit

Improving Nanowire Photovoltaics In principle, solar cells based on arrays of nanowires made from compound inorganic semiconductors, such as indium phosphide (InP), should decrease materials and fabrication costs compared with planar junctions. In practice, device efficiencies tend to be low because of poor light absorption and increased rates of unproductive charge recombination in the surface region. Wallentin et al. (p. 1057, published online 17 January) now report that arrays of p-i-n InP nanowires (that switch from positive to negative doping), grown to millimeter lengths, can be optimized by varying the nanowire diameter and length of the n-doped segment. Efficiencies as high as 13.8% were achieved, which are comparable to the best planar InP photovoltaics. Nanowire solar cells were fabricated that exhibit high photocurrents and low surface recombination. Photovoltaics based on nanowire arrays could reduce cost and materials consumption compared with planar devices but have exhibited low efficiency of light absorption and carrier collection. We fabricated a variety of millimeter-sized arrays of p-type/intrinsic/n-type (p-i-n) doped InP nanowires and found that the nanowire diameter and the length of the top n-segment were critical for cell performance. Efficiencies up to 13.8% (comparable to the record planar InP cell) were achieved by using resonant light trapping in 180-nanometer-diameter nanowires that only covered 12% of the surface. The share of sunlight converted into photocurrent (71%) was six times the limit in a simple ray optics description. Furthermore, the highest open-circuit voltage of 0.906 volt exceeds that of its planar counterpart, despite about 30 times higher surface-to-volume ratio of the nanowire cell.

Reduction of the Schottky barrier height on silicon carbide using Au nano-particles

By the incorporation of size-selected Au nano-particles in Ti Schottky contacts on silicon carbide, we could observe considerably lower the barrier height of the contacts. This result could be obtained for both n- and p-type Schottky contacts using current-voltage and capacitance voltage measurements. For n-type Schottky contacts, we observed reductions of 0.19-0.25 eV on 4H-SiC and 0.15-0.17 eV on 6H-SiC as compared with particle-free Ti Schottky contacts. For p-type SiC, the reduction was a little lower with 0.02-0.05 eV on 4H- and 0.10-0.13 eV on 6H-SiC. The reduction of the Schottky barrier height is explained using a model with enhanced electric field at the interface due to the small size of the circular patch and the large difference of the barrier height between Ti and Au.

Absorption of light in InP nanowire arrays

An understanding of the absorption of light is essential for efficient photovoltaic and photodetection applications with III–V nanowire arrays. Here, we correlate experiments with modeling and verify experimentally the predicted absorption of light in InP nanowire arrays for varying nanowire diameter and length. We find that 2,000 nm long nanowires in a pitch of 400 nm can absorb 94% of the incident light with energy above the band gap and, as a consequence, light which in a simple ray-optics description would be travelling between the nanowires can be efficiently absorbed by the nanowires. Our measurements demonstrate that the absorption for long nanowires is limited by insertion reflection losses when light is coupled from the air top-region into the array. These reflection losses can be reduced by introducing a smaller diameter to the nanowire-part closest to the air top-region. For nanowire arrays with such a nanowire morphology modulation, we find that the absorptance increases monotonously with increasing diameter of the rest of the nanowire.

Performance of GaAs Nanowire Array Solar Cells for Varying Incidence Angles

Nanowire array solar cells show intrinsic light trapping and absorption enhancement properties due to the diffraction and optical resonances. Here, we report the effect of varying incidence angle on the performance of GaAs nanowire array solar cells. We provide experimental evidence that nanowire array solar cells are highly efficient at gathering diffuse or tilted incident light, even at very high incidence angles; hence, the performance of the nanowire solar cell is retained up to these high incident light angles. Specifically, the measured efficiency at an incidence angle of 60° is 95% of the efficiency at normal incidence. Moreover, our measurements show that a nonzero incidence angle is beneficial for wavelengths above 600 nm, which results in an efficiency improvement by 0.5% absolute points. This increase is so large that we even measure a small increase in absolute output power at 15° tilt, thus, more than fully compensating for the reduced incoming power over the cell with increasing tilt. We show how this gain arises from an enhanced absorption in the part of the nanowire with a high probability of charge extraction. Thus, nanowires show great promise for the delivery of high efficiency in practical nontracking positioning conditions, as well as under diffuse light illumination.

Nanoscale tungsten aerosol particles embedded in GaAs

GaAs containing buried nanoscale tungsten particles has been characterized electrically. The particles were produced using a special aerosol process and were embedded in GaAs by epitaxial overgrowth. Two different particle sizes were investigated separately. When the particle concentration was increased, a conductance drop of about 500 times was observed. A simulation model, based on a random distribution of the particles, was developed and used to support our findings. The major advantage of our method is the simplicity and low processing cost.

Understanding InP Nanowire Array Solar Cell Performance by Nanoprobe-Enabled Single Nanowire Measurements

III-V solar cells in the nanowire geometry might hold significant synthesis-cost and device-design advantages as compared to thin films and have shown impressive performance improvements in recent years. To continue this development there is a need for characterization techniques giving quick and reliable feedback for growth development. Further, characterization techniques which can improve understanding of the link between nanowire growth conditions, subsequent processing, and solar cell performance are desired. Here, we present the use of a nanoprobe system inside a scanning electron microscope to efficiently contact single nanowires and characterize them in terms of key parameters for solar cell performance. Specifically, we study single as-grown InP nanowires and use electron beam induced current characterization to understand the charge carrier collection properties, and dark current-voltage characteristics to understand the diode recombination characteristics. By correlating the single nanowire measurements to performance of fully processed nanowire array solar cells, we identify how the performance limiting parameters are related to growth and/or processing conditions. We use this understanding to achieve a more than 7-fold improvement in efficiency of our InP nanowire solar cells, grown from a different seed particle pattern than previously reported from our group. The best cell shows a certified efficiency of 15.0%; the highest reported value for a bottom-up synthesized InP nanowire solar cell. We believe the presented approach have significant potential to speed-up the development of nanowire solar cells, as well as other nanowire-based electronic/optoelectronic devices.

Towards Nanowire Tandem Junction Solar Cells on Silicon

The development of photovoltaics as a serious means of producing renewable energy has accelerated greatly in the last ten years, with prices for silicon-based solar cell systems dropping dramatically in the last few years. The next great opportunity for photovoltaics following this competitiveness in prices will be to enhance the cell and panel efficiencies. It is quite generally seen that the most viable platform on which this should be realized will be as augmented silicon solar cells, in which a top cell will be combined with the silicon bottom cell in a tandem configuration, by which the efficiency can be enhanced by a factor from 20% to 50%, depending on details of the approach. In this paper, we report on the status of one such approach, namely, with a top cell comprising III–V nanowires, connected to the bottom silicon cell in a two-terminal or four-terminal configuration. Among the most important opportunities, we show that a substrate-free growth, called Aerotaxy, offers a radical reduction in the total price picture. Besides the description of the key technical approaches, we also discuss the environmental issues.

Reduction of the barrier height and enhancement of tunneling current of titanium contacts using embedded Au nano-particles on 4H and 6H silicon carbide

We have investigated the electrical characteristics of Ti Schottky contacts with embedded Au nano-particles on various types of epilayers of SiC (4H- and 6H-SiC). From our current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements, we observed that Ti Schottky contacts with embedded Au nano-particles had 0.19 eV (n-4H-SiC) and 0.15 eV (n-6H-SiC) lower barrier height than those of particle free Ti Schottky contacts. In order to understand this reduction of the Schottky barrier height (SBH) for Ti Schottky contacts with embedded Au nano-particles, it has been proposed that SBH lowering is caused by an enhanced electric field due to the small size of the Au nano-particles and the large SBH difference. We have also tested these contacts on highly doped nand p-type SiC material to study ohmic contacts using linear TLM measurements. (Less)

Spectroscopic investigations of arrays containing vertically and horizontally aligned silicon nanowires

The properties of nanowire arrays have been investigated mainly in comparison with isolated nanowires or thin films, owing to the difficulty in controlling the nanowire alignment. In this study, we report on arrays containing vertically or horizontally aligned silicon nanowires, whose alignment and structure were determined using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The Raman spectra of the nanowire arrays differ from those of isolated nanowires because of distinct heat dissipation rates of the absorbed energy from the laser, in agreement with recent theoretical calculations. The tailored alignment of the nanowires on solid substrates up to 1 inch of diameter also enabled the observation of resonance modes associated with light trapped into the nanowires. This was proven by comparing the light absorbed and scattered by the arrays, and may be exploited to enhance light harvesting in tandem solar cells. Significantly, the control of the assembly of nanowire arrays may have a direct impact on bottom-up technologies of high anisotropy nanomaterials.