Nanostructured materials for light harvesting applications

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Nanostructured semiconductor materials including nanowire and nanovoid arrays are compelling candidate systems for a range of light harvesting applications including photovoltaics. Their geometry offers several advantages over standard bulk or thin film systems including reduced materials usage for lower costs and more sustainable production, as well as an inherent tolerance to bulk crystal defects, resulting from the use of lateral extraction schemes which enable high carrier collection efficiency. This project will address the requirement for optical design which exploits the periodic modulation in refractive index in these systems to achieve E-field confinement and resulting strong solar absorption in nanoscale volumes, as well as the issue of surface state passivation which is critical for these systems due to their extensive surface area. This project will focus on III-V materials, in particular InP and related alloys, which exhibit a self-passivation behaviour. Recent demonstrations of conformally coated energy selective contacts for this material system offer a promising solution to the issue of surface state passivation. This project contains simulation, fabrication, and characterization elements, although it can be adjusted to match student interest.