Effects of stress and strain distribution on performance analysis of GaN/InGaN/GaN core/shell/shell radial nanowires for solar energy harvesting

Abstract

In this paper the influence of stress and strain distribution on the performance of III-Nitride nanowire photovoltaic devices are investigated. The strain-induced polarization behavior of GaN/InxGa1−xN/GaN core/shell/shell triangular nanowire solar cell with {0001}, {1-10-1}, {−110-1} or {000-1}, {1-101}, {−1101} set of facets are intensively studied by numerical modeling. It is observed that nanowire solar cells possess an irregular pattern of polarization charges due to complex distribution of stress and strain parameters depending upon growth orientations. Finally, effect of polarization charges on optical and electrical performance of nanowire solar cell are investigated in detail. It reveals that stress and strain distribution in nanowires and its consequent polarization effects have favorable influence on III-Nitride NW photovoltaic devices. This numerical study demonstrates that the issues of self-induced electric field and crystal quality in III-Nitride planar solar cell can be overcome by recent state-of-the-art growth techniques of NWs.