High-efficiency photovoltaics based on semiconductor nanostructures
- University of California, San Diego
- University of Texas at Austin
The objective of this project was to exploit a variety of semiconductor nanostructures, specifically semiconductor quantum wells, quantum dots, and nanowires, to achieve high power conversion efficiency in photovoltaic devices. In a thin-film device geometry, the objectives were to design, fabricate, and characterize quantum-well and quantum-dot solar cells in which scattering from metallic and/or dielectric nanostructures was employed to direct incident photons into lateral, optically confined paths within a thin (~1-3um or less) device structure. Fundamental issues concerning nonequilibrium carrier escape from quantum-confined structures, removal of thin-film devices from an epitaxial growth substrate, and coherent light trapping in thin-film photovoltaic devices were investigated. In a nanowire device geometry, the initial objectives were to engineer vertical nanowire arrays to optimize optical confinement within the nanowires, and to extend this approach to core-shell heterostructures to achieve broadspectrum absorption while maintaining high opencircuit voltages. Subsequent work extended this approach to include fabrication of nanowire photovoltaic structures on low-cost substrates.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States); Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Contributing Organization:
- University of California, San Diego, University of Texas at Austin, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Karlsruhe
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG36-08GO18016
- OSTI ID:
- 1083988
- Report Number(s):
- DOE08GO180163; 2007-4314
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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