Direct observation of enhanced cathodoluminescence emissions from ZnO nanocones compared with ZnO nanowire arrays

We report, for the first time, direct observation of enhanced cathodoluminescence (CL) emissions from ZnO nanocones (NCs) compared with ZnO nanowires (NWs). For direct and unambiguous comparison of CL emissions from NWs and nanocones, periodic arrays of ZnO NW were converted to nanocone arrays by our unique HCl [aq] etching technique, enabling us to compare the CL emissions from original NWs and final nanocones at the same location. CL measurements on NW and nanocone arrays reveal that emission intensity of the nanocone at ～ 387 nm is over two times larger than that of NW arrays. The enhancement of CL emission from nanocones has been confirmed by finite-difference time-domain simulation of enhanced light extraction from ZnO nanocones compared to ZnO NWs. The enhanced CL from nanocones is attributed to its sharp morphology, resulting in more chances of photons to be extracted at the interface between ZnO and air.     

Aligned 1D silicon nanostructure arrays by plasma etching

High-density aligned arrays made of one-dimensional (1D) silicon nanostructures, including nanocone, nanorod, and nanowire, are fabricated by plasma etching in a hot-filament chemical vapor deposition apparatus using the gas mixture of hydrogen, nitrogen and methane. The silicon nanocones are crystalline structure and have a uniform apex angle of about 22°. The cones can be coated in situ with an about 3 nm thick amorphous carbon film by increasing the methane concentration in source gases. With gradually decreasing the plasma intensity, the morphologies of the silicon nanostructures evolve along the nanocone–nanorod–nanowire route, and the nanowire becomes amorphous structure. The model for fabrication process of silicon nanostructures with different morphologies will also be suggested.     

Hybrid silicon nanocone-polymer solar cells

Recently, hybrid Si/organic solar cells have been studied for low-cost Si photovoltaic devices because the Schottky junction between the Si and organic material can be formed by solution processes at a low temperature. In this study, we demonstrate a hybrid solar cell composed of Si nanocones and conductive polymer. The optimal nanocone structure with an aspect ratio (height/diameter of a nanocone) less than two allowed for conformal polymer surface coverage via spin-coating while also providing both excellent antireflection and light trapping properties. The uniform heterojunction over the nanocones with enhanced light absorption resulted in a power conversion efficiency above 11%. Based on our simulation study, the optimal nanocone structures for a 10 μm thick Si solar cell can achieve a short-circuit current density, up to 39.1 mA/cm(2), which is very close to the theoretical limit. With very thin material and inexpensive processing, hybrid Si nanocone/polymer solar cells are promising as an economically viable alternative energy solution.     

Vertically aligned ZnO/amorphous-Si core-shell heterostructured nanowire arrays

We report the synthesis of vertically aligned ZnO/a-Si core-shell nanowire arrays (ZnO nanowires coated with amorphous silicon) through chemical vapor deposition. The core-shell heterostructured nanowires possessed uniform morphology and the thickness of the amorphous silicon shells could be controlled easily by tuning the deposition duration and temperature. The core-shell heterostructured nanowires exhibited enhanced antireflection and absorption performance as well as tunable PL properties. Because the individual ZnO/a-Si nanowires showed p-type characteristics and the ZnO cores were n-type semiconductors, the core-shell nanowires formed p-n junctions naturally.     

Flexible Gold Nanocone Array Surfaces as a Tool for Regulating Neuronal Behavior

Accelerated neurite outgrowth of rat cortical neurons on a flexible and inexpensive substrate functionalized with gold nanocone arrays is reported. The gold nanocone arrays are fabricated on Teflon films by a bottom‐up approach based on colloidal lithography followed by deposition of a thin gold layer. The geometry of nanocone arrays including height and pitch is controlled by the overall etching time and template polystyrene beads size. Fluorescence microscopy studies reveal high viability and significant morphological changes of the neurons on the structured surfaces. The elongation degree of neurite is maximized on the nanocone arrays created with 1 µm polystyrene beads by a factor of two with respect to the control. Furthermore, the interface between the neurons and the nanocones is investigated by scanning electron microscopy and focused ion beam cross‐sectioning. The detailed observation of the neuron/nanocone interfaces reveals the morphological similarity between the nanocone tips and the neuronal processes, the existence of interspace at the interface between the cell body and the nanocones, and neurite bridging among the neighboring structures, which may induce the acceleration of neurite outgrowth. The flexible gold nanocone arrays can be a good supporting substrate of neuron culture with noble electrical and optical properties.     

Solution-processed core-shell nanowires for efficient photovoltaic cells

Semiconductor nanowires are promising for photovoltaic applications, but, so far, nanowire-based solar cells have had lower efficiencies than planar cells made from the same materials, even allowing for the generally lower light absorption of nanowires. It is not clear, therefore, if the benefits of the nanowire structure, including better charge collection and transport and the possibility of enhanced absorption through light trapping, can outweigh the reductions in performance caused by recombination at the surface of the nanowires and at p-n junctions. Here, we fabricate core-shell nanowire solar cells with open-circuit voltage and fill factor values superior to those reported for equivalent planar cells, and an energy conversion efficiency of ～5.4%, which is comparable to that of equivalent planar cells despite low light absorption levels. The device is made using a low-temperature solution-based cation exchange reaction that creates a heteroepitaxial junction between a single-crystalline CdS core and single-crystalline Cu2S shell. We integrate multiple cells on single nanowires in both series and parallel configurations for high output voltages and currents, respectively. The ability to produce efficient nanowire-based solar cells with a solution-based process and Earth-abundant elements could significantly reduce fabrication costs relative to existing high-temperature bulk material approaches.     

Dramatic reduction of surface recombination by in situ surface passivation of silicon nanowires

Nanowires have unique optical properties and are considered as important building blocks for energy harvesting applications such as solar cells. However, due to their large surface-to-volume ratios, the recombination of charge carriers through surface states reduces the carrier diffusion lengths in nanowires a few orders of magnitude, often resulting in the low efficiency (a few percent or less) of nanowire-based solar cells. Reducing the recombination by surface passivation is crucial for the realization of high-performance nanosized optoelectronic devices but remains largely unexplored. Here we show that a thin layer of amorphous silicon (a-Si) coated on a single-crystalline silicon nanowire, forming a core-shell structure in situ in the vapor-liquid-solid process, reduces the surface recombination nearly 2 orders of magnitude. Under illumination of modulated light, we measure a greater than 90-fold improvement in the photosensitivity of individual core-shell nanowires, compared to regular nanowires without shell. Simulations of the optical absorption of the nanowires indicate that the strong absorption of the a-Si shell contributes to this effect, but we conclude that the effect is mainly due to the enhanced carrier lifetime by surface passivation.     

Graphene/silicon nanowire Schottky junction for enhanced light harvesting

Schottky junction solar cells are assembled by directly coating graphene films on n-type silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays. The graphene/SiNW junction shows enhanced light trapping and faster carrier transport compared to the graphene/planar Si structure. With chemical doping, the SiNW-based solar cells showed energy conversion efficiencies of up to 2.86% at AM1.5 condition, opening a possibility of using graphene/semiconductor nanostructures in photovoltaic application.     

Correlation between structural and optical properties of 30 nm and 60 nm lead sulfide nanowires

PbS nanowires with 30 nm and 60 nm diameter fabricated under the same condition of electrochemical deposition with sulfuric and oxalic anodic alumina membranes (AAM), respectively, have been successfully prepared in order to study their optical properties in relation to their size. Scanning electron microscopy indicates that the 60 nm PbS nanowire arrays have the same shape with the 30 nm. X-ray diffraction result shows that 60 nm PbS nanowires are crystalline and have a highly (200) preferential orientation like 30 nm ones. UV spectrum considers the nanowire size decrease as the absorption peak shifts to the blue. The quantum confinement effects compared between 30 nm and 60 nm PbS nanowire arrays were observed by the measurements of ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-vis).     

Toward optimized light utilization in nanowire arrays using scalable nanosphere lithography and selected area growth

Vertically aligned, catalyst-free semiconducting nanowires hold great potential for photovoltaic applications, in which achieving scalable synthesis and optimized optical absorption simultaneously is critical. Here, we report combining nanosphere lithography (NSL) and selected area metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (SA-MOCVD) for the first time for scalable synthesis of vertically aligned gallium arsenide nanowire arrays, and surprisingly, we show that such nanowire arrays with patterning defects due to NSL can be as good as highly ordered nanowire arrays in terms of optical absorption and reflection. Wafer-scale patterning for nanowire synthesis was done using a polystyrene nanosphere template as a mask. Nanowires grown from substrates patterned by NSL show similar structural features to those patterned using electron beam lithography (EBL). Reflection of photons from the NSL-patterned nanowire array was used as a measure of the effect of defects present in the structure. Experimentally, we show that GaAs nanowires as short as 130 nm show reflection of <10% over the visible range of the solar spectrum. Our results indicate that a highly ordered nanowire structure is not necessary: despite the "defects" present in NSL-patterned nanowire arrays, their optical performance is similar to "defect-free" structures patterned by more costly, time-consuming EBL methods. Our scalable approach for synthesis of vertical semiconducting nanowires can have application in high-throughput and low-cost optoelectronic devices, including solar cells.     

Vertically aligned cadmium chalcogenide nanowire arrays on muscovite mica: a demonstration of epitaxial growth strategy

We report a strategy for achieving epitaxial, vertically aligned cadmium chalcogenide (CdS, CdSe, and CdTe) nanowire arrays utilizing van der Waals epitaxy with (001) muscovite mica substrate. The nanowires, grown from a vapor transport process, exhibited diameter uniformity throughout their length, sharp interface to the substrate, and positive correlation between diameter and length with preferential growth direction of [0001] for the monocrystalline wurtzite CdS and CdSe nanowires, but of [111] for zinc blende CdTe nanowires, which also featured abundant twinning boundaries. Self-catalytic vapor-liquid-solid mechanism with hydrogen-assisted thermal evaporation is proposed to intepret the observations. Optical absorption from the as-grown CdSe nanowire arrays on mica at 10 K revealed intense first-order exciton absorption and its longitudinal optical phonon replica. A small Stokes shift (～1.3 meV) was identified, suggesting the high quality of the nanowires. This study demonstrated the generality of van der Waals epitaxy for the growth of nanowire arrays and their potential applications in optical and energy related devices.     

ZnO纳米线阵列修饰对材料表面浸润性调控

采用溶胶-凝胶法制备了ZnO薄膜,利用溶剂热沉积法获得大面积均匀ZnO纳米线阵列。通过对水在ZnO材料表面的浸润性研究,发现薄膜材料表面的粗糙度对ZnO膜亲水性有增强作用,而周期性ZnO阵列微结构表面可以实现其疏水性质增强效果。同时从理论上分析了这两种现象的物理机制,讨论了空气填隙对ZnO纳米线阵列表面的浸润性质的敏感性。制备出ZnO纳米线阵列的表观接触角约为103°,具有较强的疏水性质,可为进一步的ZnO光流控研究提供实验基础。     

Reconfigurable imaging systems using elliptical nanowires

Materials that have subwavelength structure can add degrees of freedom to optical system design that are not possible with bulk materials. We demonstrate two lenses that are composed out of lithographically patterned arrays of elliptical cross-section silicon nanowires, which can dynamically reconfigure their imaging properties in response to the polarization of the illumination. In each element, two different focusing functions are polarization encoded into a single lens. The first nanowire lens has a different focal length for each linear polarization state, thereby realizing the front end of a nonmechanical zoom imaging system. The second nanowire lens has a different optical axis for each linear polarization state, demonstrating stereoscopic image capture from a single physical aperture.     

Solar energy harnessing in hexagonally arranged Si nanowire arrays and effects of array symmetry on optical characteristics

Investigation of solar energy harvesting in hexagonally arranged Si nanowire (NW) arrays is performed through optimizing the structural parameters, such as array periodicity (P), Si NW diameter (D) and length (L). The results demonstrate that there exist wide P and D/P 'windows' for the Si NW arrays, locating around 600 nm and 0.833 (i.e., D=500 nm), respectively, for achieving enhanced light absorption compared to their thin film counterparts with the same thickness, but with much less materials consumption. Calculation of the ultimate efficiency (UE) indicates that the light trapping capability is not monotonically increased with L, and that UE vibration is found when L is >1000 nm. Comparison of the light absorption spectra for hexagonally and squarely arranged Si NW arrays demonstrates that these two most widely employed array symmetries in practice have little impact on the light trapping capability.     

Analysis of optical absorption in silicon nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications

This paper presents analysis of the optical absorption in silicon nanowire arrays that have potential applications in solar cells. The effects of wire diameter, length, and filling ratio on the absorptance of nanowire arrays are simulated. The study reveals that nanowire arrays with moderate filling ratio have much lower reflectance compared to thin films. In a high-frequency regime, nanowire arrays have higher absorptance than their thin film counterparts. In low-frequency regime, nanowire arrays absorb less but can be designed to approach that of the film by changing the filling ratio.     

Enhanced first-order Raman scattering from arrays of vertical silicon nanowires

Vertical ordered silicon nanowire arrays with diameters ranging from 30 to 60 nm are fabricated and display enhanced Raman scattering. The first-order 520 cm(-1) phonon mode shows no significant shift or peak broadening with increasing laser power, suggesting that the excellent defect-free diamond crystalline structure and thermal properties of bulk silicon are maintained. The Raman enhancement per unit volume of the first-order phonon peak increases with increasing nanowire diameter, and has maximum enhancement factors of 7.1 and 70 when compared to the original silicon on insulator (SOI) and bulk silicon wafers, respectively. For the array with 60 nm diameter nanowires, the total Raman intensity is larger than that of the SOI wafer. The results are understood using a model based on the confinement of light and are supported by finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations.     

Modeling of evanescent coupling between two parallel optical nanowires

Evanescent coupling between two parallel nanowires is investigated using the finite-difference time-domain method. Silica, tellurite, and silicon nanowires are used as typical materials in the simulation. Compared with weakly coupled waveguides, strongly coupled nanowires show much smaller transfer lengths without sacrificing high coupling efficiencies, suggesting possibilities for developing highly compact evanescent-coupling-based nanowire photonic devices, as well as for achieving high-efficiency interconnection between nanowires and external optical systems. Meanwhile, the polarization-dependent coupling properties, the considerably high minimum coupling efficiency, and the supermode-cutoff-like behavior are also observed. Evanescent coupling properties of strongly coupled nanowires demonstrated may provide valuable references for practical applications of optical nanowires.     

陷光结构在GaAs薄膜太阳电池中的应用

陷光结构由于其独特的光学特性,在光伏器件中发挥的作用越来越重要。目前硅基太阳电池中陷光结构的应用很常见,然而在GaAs薄膜太阳电池中陷光结构的报道并不多。详细介绍了陷光结构的原理及其在GaAs薄膜电池中的研究现状和应用情况。综述了GaAs薄膜太阳能电池中常用的三类陷光结构:正面陷光结构(包括纳米颗粒、纳米线、纳米锥等)、背面陷光结构(如镜面背反射层)以及混合陷光结构。大量研究表明,陷光结构的使用可以进一步提高GaAs薄膜电池的光电转换效率,一定程度上达到降低电池生产成本的目的。     

化学蚀刻法制备纳米硅线作为高能锂离子电池的负极

采用金属催化剂诱导化学蚀刻法首先在单晶硅片上制备出具有高长径比的纳米硅线阵列, 然后通过超声振荡法将硅线阵列破碎为纳米硅线粉体, 最后将其作为锂离子电池的负极材料, 系统研究了金属银催化剂制备过程和各向异性化学蚀刻过程对硅片表面形貌特征的影响, 发现银催化剂在蚀刻过程出现溶解/再沉积现象。通过优化AgNO₃、HF、H₂O₂等试剂的浓度, 在大面积范围内得到了高长径比的纳米硅线阵列。借助超声波的作用将硅线从硅片上切割下来, 制备成纳米硅线负极进行了充放电循环测试, 观察到标准的硅锂合金/去合金化反应平台, 前五次循环的比容量均超过1800 mAh/g。