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Charge Transfer from Carbon Nanotubes to Silicon in Flexible Carbon Nanotube/Silicon Solar Cells
Author(s) -
Li Xiaokai,
Mariano Marina,
McMillonBrown Lyndsey,
Huang JingShun,
Sfeir Matthew Y.,
Reed Mark A.,
Jung Yeonwoong,
Taylor André D.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201702387
Subject(s) - carbon nanotube , materials science , plasmonic solar cell , hybrid solar cell , absorption (acoustics) , solar cell , optoelectronics , silicon , nanotechnology , polymer solar cell , ultrafast laser spectroscopy , femtosecond , quantum dot solar cell , charge carrier , laser , optics , composite material , physics
Mechanical fragility and insufficient light absorption are two major challenges for thin flexible crystalline Si‐based solar cells. Flexible hybrid single‐walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)/Si solar cells are demonstrated by applying scalable room‐temperature processes for the fabrication of solar‐cell components (e.g., preparation of SWNT thin films and SWNT/Si p–n junctions). The flexible SWNT/Si solar cells present an intrinsic efficiency ≈7.5% without any additional light‐trapping structures. By using these solar cells as model systems, the charge transport mechanisms at the SWNT/Si interface are investigated using femtosecond transient absorption. Although primary photon absorption occurs in Si, transient absorption measurements show that SWNTs also generate and inject excited charge carriers to Si. Such effects can be tuned by controlling the thickness of the SWNTs. Findings from this study could open a new pathway for designing and improving the efficiency of photocarrier generation and absorption for high‐performance ultrathin hybrid SWNT/Si solar cells.