The growth and photovoltaic properties of Si nanowires and ZnO nanowires hetero-branched structures

ABSTRACT

Branched ZnO nanowires have been fabricated on p type Si nanowires by electrodeposition and formed a Si nanowires and ZnO nanowires branched core-shell structure. In these deposition process, Si nanowires could be used as the work electrode for ZnO directly depositing. The morphologies and growth region of ZnO could be controlled by adjusting the applied potential and deposition time. The structural and optical characterizations showed that ZnO nanowires synthesized on Si nanowires have the same physics property as synthesized on other conductive substrates and the optimal condition for ZnO growth. The I-V measurement based on the Si and ZnO p-n heterojunctions showed a typical semiconductor rectification characteristic, and the J-V measurement result indicated energy efficiency was 1.1%.

KEYWORDS:

• Si nanowires
• ZnO nanowires
• hetero-branched structures
• photovoltaic

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61204065, 61205193, 61307045, 61404009, 61474010, 11404219 and 11404161), the Developing Project of Science and Technology of Jilin Province (20130101026JC), National Key Lab of High Power Semiconductor Lasers Foundation.