Improved crystalline silicon solar cells by light harvesting zinc oxide nanowire arrays

In this paper, the performance of crystalline silicon solar cells was improved by integrating ZnO nanowire array antireflection coating by hydrothermal growth method. The average length and diameter of the ZnO nanowires are around 5 μm and 50 nm. Scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the ZnO nanowire array are vertically aligned to the substrate and highly crystalline. Optical data confirms that the ZnO nanowire array effectively reduces the reflectance, especially between wavelength from 200 to 100 nm. Compared to uncoated devices, the ZnO nanowire array improved the overall conversion by around 25%.