Solar energy is among the least efficient methods of generating electricity since very little of the light from the sun is actually converted by current solar panels. Higher efficiency solar cells have been made using various experimental materials, but these methods often do not scale well or are too expensive to be commercially viable. ZnO is a very promising material to use in solar cells since it is a cheap, natural, n-type semiconducting material that can be easily tailored. Conversely, the band gap of ZnO lies in the ultra violet spectrum, making it a poor candidate for light harvesting because only 3-5% of the sunlight at the Earth’s surface is UV. However, by using a hydrothermal growth method, and doping ZnO with transition metals such as cobalt, the band gap of the ZnO nanorods can be altered and shifted into the visible region, increasing the overall efficiency of the cell. Laboratory analysis conducted with scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) has shown that doping nanorods with cobalt can reduce the band gap of the nanorods to a range within the visible light spectrum. This technique is unique in that it is a local probe of the electronic characteristics of the sample and can be used to obtain density of states (LDOS) measurements. STS in combination with diffuse reflectance (DR) and photoluminescence (PL) can provide substantial characterization for the doped ZnO nanorods promoting their application into more efficient solar cells. <br/>

Use of scanning tunneling spectroscopy to characterize doped ZnO nanorods for solar cell applications

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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