A SWNTs thin film solar microcell prepared by simple solution-evaporation method

This paper reports a solar microcell based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) thin film-silicon heterojunction prepared by very simple and low cost solution-evaporation (SE) method. The nano-material of SWNTs, which has a one-dimensional structure and direct band gap with unique electric properties, is applied and plays the role of the energy conversion in the solar microcells, including exciton generation, carrier collection and transportation. The intrinsic p-SWNTs film was deposited conformally on the n-type silicon substrate to form the p-n heterojunction by SE method. Under 100mA/cm2 illumination, the SWNTs thin film microcell shows the open voltage (Voc) of 230mV, short circuit current density (Jsc) of 73.7μA/cm2, and fill factor (FF) of about 19%, proving that SE method is promising for achieving SWNTs thin film for application in microdevices.