Electronic structure of P-type amorphous silicon nanowires

Silicon nanowires can improve broadband optical absorption and reduce the radial carrier collection distance in solar cell devices. The disordered nanowire arrays grown by the Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition method are attractive because they can be embedded on low-cost substrates such as glass, and are compatible with large areas. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that reactive Hydrogen ions with increasing concentrations are doped to construct nanowire architectures in amorphous silicon solar cells. Similar to our investigated planar a-Si: H layers, the amorphous silicon nanowires exhibit a loss function coefficient of about 10(5)/cm. From the reflectivity function, it can be shown that the nanostructures can offer a reliable carrier pool. Our results show that the addition of nanowires can increase the efficiency of a-Si solar cells from 1.11% to 1.57%. The input-photon-to-current conversion efficiency spectrum shows effective carrier collection from 1.2 to 2.2 eV of incident light and the nanowire devices show an increase in short-circuit current of 15% with amorphous Si and 26% with nanocrystalline Si compared to planar devices appropriate.