Fabrication and Characterization of Solar Cells Based on Silicon Nanowire Homojunctions

Silicon nanowire homojunction p-n solar cells were fabricated using Zn and Au metals as catalysts for growing the NWs. This design consisted of SiNWs, doped as p and n-types, catalyzed with Zn and Au catalysts to fabricate p-n homojunctions within each wire. The surface morphology, structure, and photovoltaic properties were investigated. The morphology for each of the catalyzed SiNWs was significantly different; the Zn catalyst produced short and thick NWs with diameters ranging from 190nm to 260nm, whereas the Au catalyst produced long SiNWs with diameters ranging from 140nm to 210nm. The Zn-catalyzed SiNW p-n solar cell showed a higher efficiency of 1.01 % compared with the Au-catalyzed SiNW p-n solar cell with an efficiency of 0.67 %.