Enhanced photovoltaic effect of nanosecond-laser produced silicon nanocrystals embedded into TiO2 nanotubes

In this contribution an electrophoretic filling of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotubes with surfactant free Si-ncs dispersed in ethanol is presented. The anatase TiO2 nanotubes with diameter of 50 nm and length of 1 µm are used as a host template. Nanosecond laser fragmentation of Si-ncs in liquids increases their deposition rate and the photoluminescence emission from Si-ncs. A potential application of the Si-ncs/TiO2 nanocomposite for hybrid solar cell is demonstrated. We show that higher filling rates of nanotubes by nanosecond fragmentation processing in ethanol results also an increase in external quantum efficiency in the region where the absorption of Si-ncs occurs.