Single wall carbon nanotube electrodes for hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells

Author

Khanal, Rajendra R. ; Philips, A.B. ; Zhiquan Huang ; Dahal, L.R. ; Podraza, Nikolas J. ; Collins, Robert W. ; Heben, Michael J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Astron., Univ. of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

3-8 June 2012

Abstract

Carbon single wall nanotube (SWNT) films were applied as electrodes to replace the p-layer in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. Devices were fabricated by transferring vacuum-filtered SWNT films of varying thickness onto a-Si:H layers grown by plasma enhance chemical vapor deposition on Pilkington TEC 15 glass substrates. Cells incorporating SWNTs were illuminated from each side (glass / SWNT). A cell illuminated through a 25 nm thick SWNT film yielded short circuit current density, open circuit voltage, and efficiency of 5.47 mA/cm², 0.793 V, and 1.46%, respectively. Maximum quantum efficiency of 48% was measured at 475 nm for the same device.

Keywords

carbon nanotubes; current density; electrochemical electrodes; plasma CVD; silicon; solar cells; C; Pilkington TEC 15 glass substrates; Si; hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells; open circuit voltage; plasma enhance chemical vapor deposition; quantum efficiency; short circuit current density; single wall carbon nanotube electrodes; size 25 nm; vacuum filtered SWNT films; voltage 0.793 V; Amorphous silicon; Commercialization; Films; Substrates; amorphous silicon; carbon single wall nanotube; hetrojunction; nanostructure; photovoltaic cells;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2012 38th IEEE

Conference_Location

Austin, TX

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0064-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2012.6317568

Filename

6317568