Bi-Sn alloy catalyst for simultaneous morphology and doping control of silicon nanowires in radial junction solar cells

Low-melting point metals such as bismuth (Bi) and tin (Sn) are ideal choices for mediating a low temperature growth of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) for radial junction thin film solar cells. The incorporation of Bi catalyst atoms leads to sufficient n-type doping in the SiNWs core that exempts the use...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2015-10, Vol.107 (16)
Main Authors: Yu, Zhongwei, Lu, Jiawen, Qian, Shengyi, Misra, Soumyadeep, Yu, Linwei, Xu, Jun, Xu, Ling, Wang, Junzhuan, Shi, Yi, Chen, Kunji, Roca i Cabarrocas, Pere
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ALLOYS
Applied physics
Biotechnology
BISMUTH
Bismuth base alloys
Cadmium telluride
Catalysis
CATALYSTS
Computer Science
Doping
MATERIALS SCIENCE
MELTING POINTS
MORPHOLOGY
NANOWIRES
Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric emission
Photovoltaic cells
SILICON
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR ENERGY
THIN FILMS
TIN
VAPORS
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Summary:Low-melting point metals such as bismuth (Bi) and tin (Sn) are ideal choices for mediating a low temperature growth of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) for radial junction thin film solar cells. The incorporation of Bi catalyst atoms leads to sufficient n-type doping in the SiNWs core that exempts the use of hazardous dopant gases, while an easy morphology control with pure Bi catalyst has never been demonstrated so far. We here propose a Bi-Sn alloy catalyst strategy to achieve both a beneficial catalyst-doping and an ideal SiNW morphology control. In addition to a potential of further growth temperature reduction, we show that the alloy catalyst can remain quite stable during a vapor-liquid-solid growth, while providing still sufficient n-type catalyst-doping to the SiNWs. Radial junction solar cells constructed over the alloy-catalyzed SiNWs have demonstrated a strongly enhanced photocurrent generation, thanks to optimized nanowire morphology, and largely improved performance compared to the reference samples based on the pure Bi or Sn-catalyzed SiNWs.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4933274