9.1% efficient zinc oxide/silicon solar cells on a 50 μm thick Si absorber

• Rafal Pietruszka,
• Bartlomiej S. Witkowski,
• Monika Ozga,
• Katarzyna Gwozdz,
• Ewa Placzek-Popko and
• Marek Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 766–774, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.60

• University of Science and Technology, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland 10.3762/bjnano.12.60 Abstract Today, silicon solar cells (amorphous films and wafer-based) are a main source of green energy. These cells and their components are produced by employing various technologies. Unfortunately

• /silicon solar cells were investigated. Doped zinc oxide films (AZO, MZO) were grown via ALD and ZnONR were obtained via hydrothermal method. As substrate (absorber), a 50 μm thick silicon wafer was used. Textured and planar solar cells were constructed on the silicon surface. Solar cells with zinc oxide

Geometrical optimisation of core–shell nanowire arrays for enhanced absorption in thin crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Robin Vismara,
• Olindo Isabella,
• Andrea Ingenito,
• Fai Tong Si and
• Miro Zeman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 322–331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.31

• dependence of absorption on the nanowire cross section, a weaker effect of the nanowire height and good resilience for angles of incidence of light up to 60°. Conclusion: The presence of a nanowire array increases the optical performance of ultra-thin crystalline silicon solar cells in a wide range of

• light trapping schemes is of paramount importance for the development of high-efficiency thin silicon solar cells. The most common approach is the texturing of interfaces, to increase the path length of light inside the absorber. This allows for the use of thinner absorbers, which can decrease

Near-infrared light harvesting of upconverting NaYF₄:Yb³⁺/Er³⁺-based amorphous silicon solar cells investigated by an optical filter

• Daiming Liu,
• Qingkang Wang and
• Qing Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2788–2793, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.260

• model, the upper limit of the photoelectric conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells, equipped with an ideal upconverter, is calculated to be 47.6% [7], which is far above the Shockley–Queisser limit of ca. 32%. Thus, UC has great potential for the efficiency enhancement of solar cells. Up to now

Performance analysis of rigorous coupled-wave analysis and its integration in a coupled modeling approach for optical simulation of complete heterojunction silicon solar cells

• Ziga Lokar,
• Benjamin Lipovsek,
• Marko Topic and
• Janez Krc

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2315–2329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.216

• interface, although the considered structure did not show an improvement over the pyramidal textures. Keywords: coupled modeling approach; heterojunction; RCWA; silicon; solar cells; Introduction Light management techniques can be applied to increase the short-circuit current density and consequently the

• accuracy in simulation of structures with textures of different types and sizes used in silicon solar cells have not been investigated systematically. In this paper, we report on three-dimensional optical modeling and simulations applied to a representative of Si-wafer-based technology aiming at low cost

• photovoltaic modules, such as perovskite-crystalline silicon tandem solar cells [31] including nano, micro and combined textures. In this paper, we focus only on heterojuction silicon solar cells. CMA simulations were performed for different discretization steps in the polar and azimuth angle to determine the

Lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics

• Oleksandr Stroyuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2209–2235, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.207

• market is dominated by silicon solar cells with top light-to-current conversion efficiencies reaching ≈27% [1]. As an alternative to the Si-based cells requiring a relatively thick absorber layer due to the indirect character of electron transitions in Si, direct-bandgap metal chalcogenide semiconductors

Growth and characterization of textured well-faceted ZnO on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates for solar cell applications

• Chin-Yi Tsai,
• Jyong-Di Lai,
• Shih-Wei Feng,
• Chien-Jung Huang,
• Chien-Hsun Chen,
• Fann-Wei Yang,
• Hsiang-Chen Wang and
• Li-Wei Tu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1939–1945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.194

• work provide important information for optimized growth of textured and well-faceted ZnO grown on wafer-based silicon solar cells and can be utilized for efficiency enhancement and optimization of device materials and structures, such as heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cells

• . Keywords: atomic force microscopy; cathode luminescence; scanning electron microscopy; silicon solar cells; transparent conducting oxide; X-ray diffraction; ZnO; Introduction Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs), with both high electrical conductivity and optical transparency, could be used as a

• deposition (LPCVD) can act as good TCOs for thin film silicon solar cells [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. This is mainly due to its high transparency over the visible and near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range, lower electrical resistivity (down to 1 × 10−3 Ω·cm), and the light-trapping capability due to its

Study of the surface properties of ZnO nanocolumns used for thin-film solar cells

• Neda Neykova,
• Jiri Stuchlik,
• Karel Hruska,
• Ales Poruba,
• Zdenek Remes and
• Ognen Pop-Georgievski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 446–451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.48

• envisaged that in comparison to thin-film planar cells with nano-scale roughness, the 3-D solar cells might lead to higher efficiency providing important assets such as minimal material consumption [8][9][10]. The proposed 3-D concept is not limited to thin-film silicon solar cells, but could be

• of the dense NCs induced by hydrogen and oxygen plasma treatment under conditions typical for plasma processing of thin-film silicon solar cells. XPS was used to determine the changes in surface composition as a result of the different plasma treatments. Results and Discussion Figure 1 reports SEM

• preferred treatment for the preparation of thin-film solar cells based on ZnO NCs. The reported ZnO nanocolumns layer with a proper spacing could be used as a 3-D scaffold not only for amorphous silicon solar cells, but also for other absorbers with a short lifetime such as CuO, CuO2, FeS2, quantum dots or

The effect of dry shear aligning of nanotube thin films on the photovoltaic performance of carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells

• Benedikt W. Stolz,
• Daniel D. Tune and
• Benjamin S. Flavel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1486–1491, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.141

• South Australia, Adelaide 5042, Australia 10.3762/bjnano.7.141 Abstract Recent results in the field of carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells have suggested that the best performance is obtained when the nanotube film provides good coverage of the silicon surface and when the nanotubes in the film are

• direction of shear. It is thus reasonable to expect that nanotube films subjected to dry shear aligning should outperform otherwise identical films formed by other processes. In this work, the fabrication and characterisation of carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells using such films is reported, and the

• previous results have suggested an improvement in performance. Conclusion In conclusion, a comparison was made between carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells made with either as-prepared, vacuum filtration nanotube films or the same films after flattening and aligning of the nanotubes on the contacting

Synthesis and applications of carbon nanomaterials for energy generation and storage

• Marco Notarianni,
• Jinzhang Liu,
• Kristy Vernon and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 149–196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.17

• cell devices and electrochemical capacitors, also called supercapacitors, based on carbon nanostructures could allow for the fabrication of devices in the near future that could be more efficient and cheaper to produce than conventional silicon solar cells and chemical batteries [16][17]. The potential

Carrier multiplication in silicon nanocrystals: ab initio results

• Ivan Marri,
• Marco Govoni and
• Stefano Ossicini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 343–352, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.33

• of carrier multiplication decay dynamics by analyzing systems of isolated and coupled silicon nanocrystals. The effects on carrier multiplication dynamics by energy and charge transfer processes are also discussed. Keywords: carrier multiplication; nanocrystals; silicon; solar cells; Introduction

Oriented growth of porphyrin-based molecular wires on ionic crystals analysed by nc-AFM

• Thilo Glatzel,
• Lars Zimmerli,
• Shigeki Kawai,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Leslie-Anne Fendt and
• Francois Diederich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 34–39, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.4

• efficiencies with a broader wavelength range compared to silicon solar cells, such antennae systems are for example also of potential interest for hybrid solar cells that could operate under low or moderate light conditions. Furthermore, porphyrins are known to be very promising building blocks: They are not