Si nanowires organic semiconductor hybrid heterojunction solar cells toward 10% efficiency

High-efficiency hybrid solar cells are fabricated using a simple approach of spin coating a transparent hole transporting organic small molecule, 2,2′,7,7′-Tetrakis-(N,N-di-4-methoxyphenylamino)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD) on silicon nanowires (SiNWs) arrays prepared by electroless chemical etching. The characteristics of the hybrid cells are investigated as a function of SiNWs length from 0.15 to 5 μm. A maximum average power conversion efficiency of 9.92% has been achieved from 0.35 μm length SiNWs cells, despite a 12% shadowing loss and the absence of antireflective coating and back surface field enhancement. It is found that enhanced aggregations in longer SiNWs limit the cell performance due to increased series resistance and higher carrier recombination in the shorter wavelength region. The effects of the Si substrate doping concentrations on the performance of the cells are also investigated. Cells with higher substrate doping concentration exhibit a significant drop in the incident photons-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) in the near infrared region. Nevertheless, a promising short circuit current density of 19 mA/cm2 and IPCE peak of 57% have been achieved for a 0.9 μm length SiNWs cell fabricated on a highly doped substrate with a minority-carrier diffusion length of only 15 μm. The results suggest that such hybrid cells can potentially be realized using Si thin films instead of bulk substrates. This is promising towards realizing low-cost and high-efficiency SiNWs/organic hybrid solar cells