Silicon nanowires solar cell

We made an amorphous-silicon (a-Si) solar cell with a nanowire-array structure on stainless steel(SS) by plasma enhanced chemical vapor (PECVD) deposition. This nanowire structure has an n-type Si nanowire array in which a-Si intrinsic layer and p type layer are sequentially grown on the surface of the nanowire. The highest open-circuit voltage (V oc) and short-circuit current density (J sc) for AM 1.5 illumination were 620 mV and 13.4 mA/cm 2, respectively at a maximum power conversion efficiency of 3.57%. © 2011 Materials Research Society.