SBIR Phase I: Nanocable Structures - Material Growth and Characterization

这个小型企业创新研究(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，可用于极低成本、高效的纳米结构太阳能电池应用。这项技术将使金属/半导体结能够集成到纳米结构中，其功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允许最大限度地增加表面对光的吸收。此外，这种特定的设计通过提供有序的、纳米级定制的、带有直接通道到电极的接口来加速流动载体。在所提出的纳米结构的内部界面上的散射将增加通过该单元的光路，从而增强光吸收，从而允许进一步减小吸收层厚度。此外，极纳米尺度的半导体结构表现出与块体材料明显不同的物理性质，如光学带隙偏移和带隙增加。这种新颖的纳米结构太阳能电池将使用模板合成，这种模板合成很容易整合到今天的薄膜技术中。所提出的技术是通用的，纳米结构可以在几乎任何衬底上制造(导电、非导电、刚性、柔性等)。利用CdTe/Au纳米材料为制备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。该技术适用于效率更高的太阳能电池的制造。该工艺简单且成本效益高，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.