Nanowire solar cells with nanostructured photoabsorbers are becoming very attractive for the fabrication of high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. Some of the challenges for fabrication of these photovoltaic devices include assembly of the nanostructured photoabsorbers over the region of interest and the ability to grow vertically ordered arrays with precise distribution of size and shape over the entire ensemble. In this presentation, we describe a straightforward approach for the fabrication of CdTe nanowire and nanotube arrays with a high degree of precision through confined electrodeposition on lithographically patterned nanoelectrodes. This technique has the potential to grow these nanotube/nanowire arrays over a significantly large area that can be scaled up to the industrial manufacturing scale. The desired nanoelectrode pattern was defined on indium tin oxide coated glass, which was used as a typical conducting substrate, through electron beam lithography and electrodeposition of the semiconducting material of interest (CdTe) on the nanoelecrodes was used to grow the nanotubes/nanowires. It is interesting to note that the measured photocurrent density of nanotube device created by this protocol exceeds that obtained from a thin film device fabricated under similar conditions by at least a factor of three. The ability to tune the entire nanotube/nanowire diameter, length, shape, packing density, and nanotube wall thickness, make this method a versatile tool to fabricate and investigate the nano-structured photovoltaic devices and study their structure-property relationship. Additionally the ability to create uniform nanotube arrays makes this protocol unique. The simplicity of this method opens up a window of opportunities to investigate the effect of morphology on the solar cell efficiency of different semiconducting materials. In this talk we will discuss the growth of nanowires and especially nanotube arrays through patterned electrodeposition on nanoelectrodes, and present detailed investigation of their characterization and solar cell efficiencies.

Highly ordered CdTe nanotube arrays for solar cells through patterned electrodeposition

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.