Fabrication Of One Dimensional Zinc Oxide Nanocone Arrays And The Application In Solar Cells

Improving the light absorbing of solar cell and promoting the transfer ofphotogenerated carriers towards the external circuit are two primary methods to enhancethe efficiency of photovoltaic devices. It has been showed that the optical properties andefficiency of solar cell had been improved greatly due to the introduction ofnanostructure. However, the disadvantages are high cost of preparation, complex processcontrol and small areas. Here, a large-size ZnO nanocone arrays is prepared by acost-effective method, which is applied to hydrogenated amorphous silicon （a-Si:H） solarcells as nanoubstrate.In this thesis, the ZnO:Al（AZO） thin film was deposited by DC magnetronsputtering. The ZnO nanorod arrays were grown on AZO seed layer by the chemicalsolution method. The effect of the solution concentration about Zn（NO₃）₂/HMT andZn（Ac）₂/HMT systems on the morphology of ZnO nanorod arrays was systemicallystudied, respectively. The effect of the additive of1,3-diaminopropane and NaCl on themorphology of ZnO nanorod arrays was studied, too. The seed layer can reduce theenergy of nucleation, so the space of ZnO nanorod arrays was adjusted by wet-etchingthe seed layer. On the other hand, in order to improve the interfacial properties of ZnOnanorod arrays, a layer of AZO thin film was spurtted on the surface of them. Thenanocone arrays were fabricated by the above steps, mean while, the morphology ofnanorod arrays were improved.The modified ZnO nanorod arrays were applied in p-i-n and n-i-p a-Si:H singlejunction solar cell repectively, and the planar solar cell was also prepared using the samedeposition condition for comparision. The results showed that the short circuit currents（JSC） and the transfer effciency of the nanostruture p-i-n a-Si:H solar cell reach to15.43mA/cm²and7.03%, which are21%and9.16%higher than that of the planar device,respectively. For the3D n-i-p a-Si:H solar cell, the Jsc and the transfer effciency reach to12.19mA/cm²and5.47%, which are36.97%and32.77%higher than that of theplanar device, respectively.