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Bismuth-Catalyzed and Doped Silicon Nanowires for One-Pump-Down Fabrication of Radial Junction Solar Cells

2012; American Chemical Society; Volume: 12; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1021/nl3017187

1530-6992

Linwei Yu, F. Fortuna, Benedict O’Donnell, Taewoo Jeon, Martin Foldyna, Gennaro Picardi, Pere Roca i Cabarrocas,

Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies

Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are becoming a popular choice to develop a new generation of radial junction solar cells. We here explore a bismuth- (Bi-) catalyzed growth and doping of SiNWs, via vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mode, to fabricate amorphous Si radial n–i–p junction solar cells in a one-pump-down and low-temperature process in a single chamber plasma deposition system. We provide the first evidence that catalyst doping in the SiNW cores, caused by incorporating Bi catalyst atoms as n-type dopant, can be utilized to fabricate radial junction solar cells, with a record open circuit voltage of Voc = 0.76 V and an enhanced light trapping effect that boosts the short circuit current to Jsc = 11.23 mA/cm2. More importantly, this bi-catalyzed SiNW growth and doping strategy exempts the use of extremely toxic phosphine gas, leading to significant procedure simplification and cost reduction for building radial junction thin film solar cells.