The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Nanowires With Promise for Photovoltaics

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

Solar energy harvesting for electricity production is regarded as a fully credible future energy source: plentiful and without serious environmental concerns. The breakthrough for solar energy technology implementation has, however, been hampered by two issues: the conversion efficiency of light into electricity and the solar panel production cost. The use of III-V nanowires (NWs) in photovoltaics allows to respond to both these demands. They offer efficient light absorption and significant cost reduction. These low-dimensional structures can be grown epitaxially in dense NW arrays directly on silicon wafers, which are abundant and cheaper than the germanium substrates used for triple-junction solar cells today. For planar structures, lattice matching poses a strong restriction on growth. III-V NWs offer to create highly efficient multijunction devices, since multiple materials can be combined to match the solar spectrum without the need of tightly controlled lattice matching. At the same time, less material is required for NW-based solar cells than for planar-based architecture. This approach has potential to reach more than 50% in efficiency. Here, we describe our work on NW tandem solar cells, aiming toward two junctions absorbing different parts of the solar spectrum, connected in series via a tunnel diode.

Publishing year

2011

Language

English

Pages

1050-1061

Publication/Series

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

Volume

17

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.

Topic

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Nano Technology

Keywords

  • Doping
  • nanowires (NWs)
  • photovoltaics (PV)

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1077-260X