Periodic Nanopillar N-I-P Amorphous Si Photovoltaic Cells Using Carbon Nanotube Scaffolds

Arrays of periodic one-dimensional nanomaterials offer tunable optical properties in terms of light-matter interaction which are attractive for designing efficient optoelectronic devices. This paper presents a fabrication of bottom-up grown nanopillar (NP) array solar cells based on n-i-p thin-film amorphous silicon using scaffolds of vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) array. The effects of varying the CNT spacing over the range from 800 to 2000 nm on optical and electrical properties of the solar cells were investigated. The NP solar cell with CNT spacing of 800 nm exhibited `moth-eye´ broadband antireflection behavior, showing an average reflectance value lower than 10%. The enhanced optical absorption translated to significant enhancements in photocurrent and quantum efficiency compared to a conventional planar solar cell under low light condition. The open-circuit voltage (V_oc) of the NP solar cell was found systematically correlated with the CNT spacing and the illumination condition. The results presented here is of importance for developing high efficiency one-dimensional nanostructured solar cells.