Si nanowires grown by al-catalyzed plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (pecvd) on quartz substrates for solar cell applications
Corressponding author's email:
toanvatlieu@gmail.comKeywords:
Silicon, nanowires, Silicon nanowires, solar cells, photovoltaics (PVs)Abstract
Silicon nanowires have been synthesized on quartz substrates using Al as a catalyst. Silane (SiH4) diluted in H2 carrier gas was employed as Si precursor in a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system operated at 550°C. This growth temperature is lower than the eutectic temperature in the Al – Si system (577°C) which suggests a vapor – solid – solid (VSS) growth mechanism. Electrical measurements and back-gated current-voltage measurements indicated that silicon nanowires were heavily doped (p type), with a doping concentration of a few 1019cm-3. We have measured hole mobility values of ~ 30cm2/V.s. We have also evaluated the use of those highly doped Si nanowires for solar cell applications based on core-shell structure, an efficiency of ~ 2,37% for the best one with fill factor of ~ 48,2%, open circuit voltage of ~ 0.70V and current density of ~ 15,2mA/cm2.
Downloads: 0
References
B.M. Kayes, H.A. Atwater, N.S. Lewis, Comparison of the device physics principles of planar and radial p-n junction nanorod solar cells, J. Appl. Phys. 97 (2005) 114302.
B.M. Kayes, M.A. Filler, M.C. Putnam, M.D. Kelzenberg, N.S. Lewis, H.A. Atwater, Growth of vertically aligned Si wire arrays over large areas (>1cm2) with Au and Cu catalysts, Appl. Phys. Lett. 91 (2007) 103110.
M.C. Putnam, S.W. Boettcher, M.D. Kelzenberg, D.B. Turner-Evans, J.M. Spurgeon, E.L. Warren, R.M. Briggs, N.S. Lewis, H.A. Atwater, Si microwire-array solar cells, Energy Environ. Sci. 3 (2010) 1037–1041.
M.D. Kelzenberg, D.B. Turner-Evans, M.C. Putnam, S.W. Boettcher, R.M. Briggs, J.Y. Baek, N.S. Lewis, H.A. Atwater, High-performance Si microwire photovoltaics, Energy Environ. Sci. 4 (2011) 866–871.
M.D. Kelzenberg, S.W. Boettcher, J.A. Petykiewicz, D.B. Turner-Evans, M.C. Putnam, E.L. Warren, J.M. Spurgeon, R.M. Briggs, N.S. Lewis, H.A. Atwater, Enhanced absorption and carrier collection in Si wire arrays for photovoltaic applications, Nat. Mater. 9 (2010) 239–244.
X. Li, Z. Chen, N. Shen, D. Sarkar, N. Singh, K. Banerjee, G.-Q. Lo, D.-L. Kwong, Vertically Stacked and Independently Controlled Twin-Gate MOSFETs on a Single Si Nanowire, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 32 (2011) 1492–1494.
K.H. Cho, K.H. Yeo, Y.Y. Yeoh, S.D. Suk, M. Li, J.M. Lee, M.-S. Kim, D.-W. Kim, D. Park, B.H. Hong, Y.C. Jung, S.W. Hwang, Experimental evidence of ballistic transport in cylindrical gate-all-around twin silicon nanowire metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, Appl. Phys. Lett. 92 (2008) 52102.
J.-P. Colinge, C.-W. Lee, A. Afzalian, N.D. Akhavan, R. Yan, I. Ferain, P. Razavi, B. O’Neill, A. Blake, M. White, A.-M. Kelleher, B. McCarthy, R. Murphy, Nanowire transistors without junctions, Nat. Nanotechnol. 5 (2010) 225–229.
G. Lehoucq, P. Bondavalli, S. Xavier, P. Legagneux, P. Abbyad, C.N. Baroud, D. Pribat, Highly sensitive pH measurements using a transistor composed of a large array of parallel silicon nanowires, Sens. Actuators B Chem. 171–172 (2012) 127–134. doi:10.1016/j.snb.2012.01.054.
D.V. Talapin, H. Yu, E.V. Shevchenko, A. Lobo, C.B. Murray, Synthesis of Colloidal PbSe/PbS Core−Shell Nanowires and PbS/Au Nanowire−Nanocrystal Heterostructures, J. Phys. Chem. C. 111 (2007) 14049–14054.
L. Zhu, M.R. Phillips, C. Ton-That, Coalescence of ZnO nanowires grown from monodisperse Au nanoparticles, CrystEngComm. 17 (2015) 4987–4991.
S. Misra, L. Yu, W. Chen, M. Foldyna, P.R. i Cabarrocas, A review on plasma-assisted VLS synthesis of silicon nanowires and radial junction solar cells, J. Phys. Appl. Phys. 47 (2014) 393001.
T.I. Kamins, R.S. Williams, Y. Chen, Y.-L. Chang, Y.A. Chang, Chemical vapor deposition of Si nanowires nucleated by TiSi2 islands on Si, Appl. Phys. Lett. 76 (2000) 562–564.
S. Hofmann, R. Sharma, C.T. Wirth, F. Cervantes-Sodi, C. Ducati, T. Kasama, R.E. Dunin-Borkowski, J. Drucker, P. Bennett, J. Robertson, Ledge-flow-controlled catalyst interface dynamics during Si nanowire growth, Nat. Mater. 7 (2008) 372–375.
Y. Wang, V. Schmidt, S. Senz, U. Gösele, Epitaxial growth of silicon nanowires using an aluminium catalyst, Nat. Nanotechnol. 1 (2006) 186–189.
O. Moutanabbir, D. Isheim, H. Blumtritt, S. Senz, E. Pippel, D.N. Seidman, Colossal injection of catalyst atoms into silicon nanowires, Nature. 496 (2013)
D.E. Perea, E.R. Hemesath, E.J. Schwalbach, J.L. Lensch-Falk, P.W. Voorhees, L.J. Lauhon, Direct measurement of dopant distribution in an individual vapour–liquid–solid nanowire, Nat. Nanotechnol. 4 (2009) 315–319.
J.E. Allen, D.E. Perea, E.R. Hemesath, L.J. Lauhon, Nonuniform Nanowire Doping Profiles Revealed by Quantitative Scanning Photocurrent Microscopy, Adv. Mater. 21 (2009) 3067–3072.
H. Schmid, M.T. Björk, J. Knoch, S. Karg, H. Riel, W. Riess, Doping limits of grown in situ doped silicon nanowires using phosphine, Nano Lett. 9 (2009) 173–177.
Y. Ke, X. Weng, J.M. Redwing, C.M. Eichfeld, T.R. Swisher, S.E. Mohney, Y.M. Habib, Fabrication and Electrical Properties of Si Nanowires Synthesized by Al Catalyzed Vapor−Liquid−Solid Growth, Nano Lett. 9 (2009) 4494–4499.
B.A. Wacaser, M.C. Reuter, M.M. Khayyat, C.-Y. Wen, R. Haight, S. Guha, F.M. Ross, Growth system, structure, and doping of aluminum-seeded epitaxial silicon nanowires, Nano Lett. 9 (2009) 3296–3301.
S.-Y. Choi, W.Y. Fung, W. Lu, Growth and electrical properties of Al-catalyzed Si nanowires, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98 (2011) 33108.
T.I. Kamins, R.S. Williams, D.P. Basile, T. Hesjedal, J.S. Harris, Ti-catalyzed Si nanowires by chemical vapor deposition: Microscopy and growth mechanisms, J. Appl. Phys. 89 (2001) 1008–1016.
S.J. Whang, S.J. Lee, W.F. Yang, B.J. Cho, Y.F. Liew, D.L. Kwong, Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Compatible Al-Catalyzed Silicon Nanowires, Electrochem. Solid-State Lett. 10 (2007) E11. doi:10.1149/1.2716304.
O. Moutanabbir, S. Senz, R. Scholz, M. Alexe, Y. Kim, E. Pippel, Y. Wang, C. Wiethoff, T. Nabbefeld, F. Meyer zu Heringdorf, M. Horn-von Hoegen, Atomically Smooth p-Doped Silicon Nanowires Catalyzed by Aluminum at Low Temperature, ACS Nano. 5 (2011) 1313–1320.
E.C. Garnett, M.L. Brongersma, Y. Cui, M.D. McGehee, Nanowire Solar Cells, Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 41 (2011) 269–295.
C. Cayron, M. Den Hertog, L. Latu-Romain, C. Mouchet, C. Secouard, J.-L. Rouviere, E. Rouviere, J.-P. Simonato, Odd electron diffraction patterns in silicon nanowires and silicon thin films explained by microtwins and nanotwins, J. Appl. Crystallogr. 42 (2009) 242–252.
Z. He, H.T. Nguyen, L.D. Toan, D. Pribat, A detailed study of kinking in indium-catalyzed silicon nanowires, CrystEngComm. 17 (2015) 6286–6296.
K.-Q. Peng, S.-T. Lee, Silicon Nanowires for Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversion, Adv. Mater. 23 (2011) 198–215.
A. Kanevce, W.K. Metzger, The role of amorphous silicon and tunneling in heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cells, J. Appl. Phys. 105 (2009) 94507.
M.M. Adachi, M.P. Anantram, K.S. Karim, Core-shell silicon nanowire solar cells, Sci. Rep. 3 (2013) 1546.
J. Cho, B. O’Donnell, L. Yu, K.-H. Kim, I. Ngo, P.R. i Cabarrocas, Sn-catalyzed silicon nanowire solar cells with 4.9% efficiency grown on glass, Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl. 21 (2013) 77–81.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright © JTE.
