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Thin film silicon nanowire photovoltaic devices produced with gold and tin catalysts
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Thin film silicon nanowire photovoltaic devices produced with gold and tin catalysts

D. Parlevliet and P. Jennings
Journal of Nanoparticle Research, Vol.13(10), pp.4431-4436
2011
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Abstract

Silicon nanowires produced using pulsed plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition have been used as part of a thin film photovoltaic device. Nanowires of differing morphologies were produced by using both gold and tin thin films as a catalyst for growth. A prototype silicon nanowire-based thin-film photovoltaic device was produced by using doped silicon nanowires as the p-layer. Amorphous silicon was used as the intrinsic and n-layers of the device. The nanowires used in the photovoltaic devices had an average diameter of 420 nm after the deposition and coating of amorphous silicon intrinsic and n-layers. The nanowires were deposited in bulk as films of 3 to 42 mu m in thickness. The resulting device, although of low efficiency, had a demonstrable photocurrent. Tin-catalyzed nanowires were found to produce a thin-film device with a measurable photocurrent whereas gold-catalyzed silicon nanowires did not. This was attributed to the length of the nanowires and thickness of the p-layer produced when using gold-catalyzed nanowires.

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Citation topics
5 Physics
5.31 Silicon Systems
5.31.937 Silicon Nanowires
Web Of Science research areas
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
ESI research areas
Materials Science
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