Fabrication and characterization of small scale Photo-Electro-Chemical solar cells.

摘要

This thesis presents fabrication and characterization of a small scale photo-electro-chemical (PEC) solar cell.;The cell consists of a p-type silicon cathode with an etched micro-cavity that houses the zinc chloride electrolyte solution, and the cavity is covered by a sheet of zinc acting as the anode. The cell operates using a semiconductor-electrolyte junction instead of the p-n junction of a conventional solid state solar cell. The silicon electrode is fabricated by controlled wet etching so that the bottom of the micro-cavity becomes a very thin membrane, which allows photons to penetrate and reach the semiconductor-electrolyte interface for the generation of excess electron-hole pairs. The separation of the excess charge carriers by the junction built-in electric field results in a photopotential across the semiconductor-electrolyte junction.;Silicon electrodes with different membrane sizes were successfully fabricated in the Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS) lab at the University of Denver. The electrical characteristics of the PEC solar cells were obtained and will be discussed in this thesis.