Onur Ergen

Three-dimensional nanopillar-array photovoltaics on low-cost and flexible substrates

Solar energy represents one of the most abundant and yet least harvested sources of renewable energy. In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in developing photovoltaics that can be potentially mass deployed. Of particular interest to cost-effective solar cells is to use novel device structures and materials processing for enabling acceptable efficiencies. In this regard, here, we report the direct growth of highly regular, single-crystalline nanopillar arrays of optically active semiconductors on aluminium substrates that are then configured as solar-cell modules. As an example, we demonstrate a photovoltaic structure that incorporates three-dimensional, single-crystalline n-CdS nanopillars, embedded in polycrystalline thin films of p-CdTe, to enable high absorption of light and efficient collection of the carriers. Through experiments and modelling, we demonstrate the potency of this approach for enabling highly versatile solar modules on both rigid and flexible substrates with enhanced carrier collection efficiency arising from the geometric configuration of the nanopillars.

Nanoscale doping of InAs via sulfur monolayers

One of the challenges for the nanoscale device fabrication of III-V semiconductors is controllable postdeposition doping techniques to create ultrashallow junctions. Here, we demonstrate nanoscale, sulfur doping of InAs planar substrates with high dopant areal dose and uniformity by using a self-limiting monolayer doping approach. From transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry, a dopant profile abruptness of ∼3.5 nm/decade is observed without significant defect density. The n+/p+ junctions fabricated by using this doping scheme exhibit negative differential resistance characteristics, further demonstrating the utility of this approach for device fabrication with high electrically active sulfur concentrations of ∼8×1018 cm−3.

Molecular monolayers for conformal, nanoscale doping of InP nanopillar photovoltaics

Semiconductor nanopillar arrays with radially doped junctions have been widely proposed as an attractive device architecture for cost effective and high efficiency solar cells. A challenge in the fabrication of three-dimensional nanopillar devices is the need for highly abrupt and conformal junctions along the radial axes. Here, a sulfur monolayer doping scheme is implemented to achieve conformal ultrashallow junctions with sub-10 nm depths and a high electrically active dopant concentration of 1019–1020 cm−3 in arrays of InP nanopillars. The enabled solar cells exhibit a respectable conversion efficiency of 8.1% and a short circuit current density of 25 mA/cm3. The work demonstrates the utility of well-established surface chemistry for fabrication of nonplanar junctions for complex devices.

Screening-Engineered Field-Effect Solar Cells

Photovoltaics (PV) are a promising source of clean renewable energy, but current technologies face a cost-to-efficiency trade-off that has slowed widespread implementation. We have developed a PV architecture-screening-engineered field-effect photovoltaics (SFPV)-that in principle enables fabrication of low-cost, high efficiency PV from virtually any semiconductor, including the promising but hard-to-dope metal oxides, sulfides, and phosphides. Prototype SFPV devices have been constructed and are found to operate successfully in accord with model predictions.

Shape-Controlled Synthesis of Single-Crystalline Nanopillar Arrays by Template-Assisted Vapor−Liquid−Solid Process

Highly regular, single-crystalline nanopillar arrays with tunable shapes and geometry are synthesized by the template-assisted vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism. In this approach, the grown nanopillars faithfully reproduce the shape of the pores because during the growth the liquid catalyst seeds fill the space available, thereby conforming to the pore geometry. The process is highly generic for various material systems, and as an example, CdS and Ge nanopillar arrays with square, rectangular, and circular cross sections are demonstrated. In the future, this technique can be used to engineer the intrinsic properties of NPLs as a function of three independently controlled dimensional parameters--length, width and height.

Performance enhancement of a graphene-zinc phosphide solar cell using the electric field-effect.

The optical transparency and high electron mobility of graphene make it an attractive material for photovoltaics. We present a field-effect solar cell using graphene to form a tunable junction barrier with an Earth-abundant and low cost zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) thin-film light absorber. Adding a semitransparent top electrostatic gate allows for tuning of the graphene Fermi level and hence the energy barrier at the graphene-Zn3P2 junction, going from an ohmic contact at negative gate voltages to a rectifying barrier at positive gate voltages. We perform current and capacitance measurements at different gate voltages in order to demonstrate the control of the energy barrier and depletion width in the zinc phosphide. Our photovoltaic measurements show that the efficiency conversion is increased 2-fold when we increase the gate voltage and the junction barrier to maximize the photovoltaic response. At an optimal gate voltage of +2 V, we obtain an open-circuit voltage of V oc = 0.53 V and an efficiency of 1.9% under AM 1.5 1-sun solar illumination. This work demonstrates that the field effect can be used to modulate and optimize the response of photovoltaic devices incorporating graphene.

Metal insulator semiconductor solar cell devices based on a Cu2O substrate utilizing h-BN as an insulating and passivating layer

We demonstrate cuprous oxide (Cu2O) based metal insulator semiconductor Schottky (MIS-Schottky) solar cells with efficiency exceeding 3%. A unique direct growth technique is employed in the fabrication, and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) serves simultaneously as a passivation and insulation layer on the active Cu2O layer. The devices are the most efficient of any Cu2O based MIS-Schottky solar cells reported to date.

Graded bandgap perovskite solar cells (Retraction of Vol 16, Pg 522, 2017)

Nature Materials 16, 522-525 (2017); published online 7 November 2016; retracted after print 20 December 2017. The authors of the study are retracting this Letter due to concerns about the reproducibility of the photovoltaic architecture performance presented, and with the interpretation of the dataincluded in the manuscript and Supplementary Information.This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/nmat4795.