Development of ZnO/CdS/CdTe core-shell nanorod-based solar cells with an extremely thin absorber

摘要

Electrically conducting ZnO nanorod (NR) arrays would form an interesting front contact for superstrate inorganic (e.g. CdTe) solar cells with an extremely-thin-absorber (eta). A combination of the improved areal density of the semiconductor junction (due to the large surface area of the NR array available for deposition) and also the light trapping effects observable in such nanostructures [1] are expected to improve the photocurrent and spectral response. However, a survey of the related literature on solar cells involving NR arrays suggests this is not straightforward to realise. In practice, there seems to be many technical issues related to material properties and deposition uniformity, resulting in poor and even non-functional one-dimensional PV structures. Major et al. recently reported on the deposition of a CdTe solar cell structure on ZnO NR array films [2]. The ZnO NR film served as a highly resistive buffer layer as it was found that core-shell structure was not achieved via the deposition method used.