A hybrid solar cell based on silicon nanowire and organic thin film

In this work, a hybrid solar cell based on Si nanowires (NWs) coated with a polymer (PCBM) is presented. Vertically well-aligned Si NWs were successfully synthesized by a Ag-assisted electroless etching technique with etching depth of 3 μm uniformly distributed over the surface of p-type Si wafer. Three-dimensional (p-Si NW)/PCBM ([6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester) hybrid solar cell was fabricated by encapsulation of Si NW arrays by a thin layer of PCBM deposited by spin-coating process. The characteristics of the hybrid cell was studied with current-voltage and capacitance-voltage measurements by which the barrier height and ideality factor were found to be 0.85 V and 2.2, respectively. From a partially illuminated area of the Al/p-Si NW/PCBM/ITO structured hybrid solar cell, the open circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency were calculated as 0.19 V, 8.1 mA cm^-2, 27 and 0.41%, respectively.