SBIR Phase I: Nanocable Structures - Material Growth and Characterization

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在评估一种全新的半导体径向异质结构（例如CdTe/Au）的可行性，该结构具有调制成分和制造方法，可用于非常低成本，高效的纳米结构太阳能电池应用。这项技术将使金属/半导体结集成到纳米结构中，其性能类似于单一的太阳能电池。优点是每个纳米结构都有自己的收集器。将这些纳米结构组装成太阳能电池阵列，将使光吸附的表面最大化。此外，这种特殊的设计通过提供一个有序的、纳米级定制的、具有直接通道到电极的界面来加速流动载体。所提出的纳米结构内部界面的散射将增加通过电池的光路，从而提高光学吸光度，从而允许进一步减少吸收剂厚度。此外，极端纳米尺度的半导体结构表现出明显不同于块体材料的物理性质，如光学带偏移和带隙增加。这种新型的纳米结构太阳能电池将使用模板合成，这将很容易结合到今天的薄膜技术中。所提出的技术是通用的，纳米结构几乎可以在任何衬底上制造（导电、不导电、刚性、柔性等）。CdTe/Au纳米电缆的使用为制造具有许多独特物理性能的新型纳米复合材料开辟了新的途径。该技术适用于提高效率的太阳能电池的制造。该工艺简单、经济，可在室温下进行。它不需要任何昂贵的洁净室设施。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to assess the feasibility of a completely new semiconductor radial heterostructure (e.g. CdTe/Au) with modulated composition and fabrication method for very low cost, highly efficient nanostructured solar cells application. This technology would enable the integration of the metal /semiconductor junction into nanostructures that perform like singular solar cells. The advantage is that each nanostructure has its own collector. Assembling these nanostructures into a solar cell array will allow maximizing the surface for light adsorption. Additionally, this specific design accelerates the flow carrier by providing an ordered, nanoscale tailored, interface with direct channels to electrodes. Scattering at the internal interfaces of the proposed nanostructures will increase the optical path through the cell and thus enhance the optical absorbance, allowing for a further reduction of the absorber thickness. Besides, semiconductor structures at extreme nanoscale dimensions exhibit distinctly different physical properties than the bulk material, such as optical band offset and increase in band gap. This novel nanostructured solar cell will use a template synthesis that will be easy to incorporate into today's thin film technology. The proposed technology is versatile and the nanostructures can be made on virtually any substrate (conductive, nonconductive, rigid, flexible etc). Employing of CdTe/Au nanocables opens new avenue in fabrication of new nanocomposite materials exhibiting quite a number of unique physical properties. The proposed technology is applicable to fabrication of solar cells with improved efficiency. The simple and cost-effective process can be performed at room temperature. It does not require any expensive clean room facilities.