Carbon nanotube–amorphous silicon hybrid solar cell with improved conversion efficiency

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Abstract
We report a hybrid solar cell based on single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) interfaced with amorphous silicon (a-Si). The high quality carbon nanotube network was dry transferred onto intrinsic a-Si forming Schottky junction for metallic SWNT bundles and heterojunctions for semiconducting SWNT bundles. The nanotube chemical doping and a-Si surface treatment minimized the hysteresis effect in current–voltage characteristics allowing an increase in the conversion efficiency to 1.5% under an air mass 1.5 solar spectrum simulator. We demonstrated that the thin SWNT film is able to replace a simultaneously p-doped a-Si layer and transparent conductive electrode in conventional amorphous silicon thin film photovoltaics.
Funding Information
  • Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ENE2013-47904-C3-3-R)
  • Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (RFMEFI61815X0003)
  • European Union for Erasmus Mundus (post-doctoral scholarship under Ind)

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