Tantalum oxide electron-selective heterocontacts for silicon photovoltaics and photoelectrochemical water reduction

Wan, Yimao, Karuturi, Siva Krishna, Samundsett, Christian, Bullock, James, Hettick, Mark, Yan, Di, Peng, Jun, Narangari, Parvathala Reddy, Mokkapati, Sudha ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3260-6560, Tan, Hark Hoe, Jagadish, Chennupati, Javey, Ali and Cuevas, Andres 2018. Tantalum oxide electron-selective heterocontacts for silicon photovoltaics and photoelectrochemical water reduction. ACS Energy Letters 3 (1) , pp. 125-131. 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b01153

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Abstract

Crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells have been dominating the photovoltaic (PV) market for decades, and c-Si based photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells are regarded as one of the most promising routes for water splitting and renewable production of hydrogen. In this work, we demonstrate a nanoscale tantalum oxide (TaOx, ∼6 nm) as an electron-selective heterocontact, simultaneously providing high-quality passivation to the silicon surface and effective transport of electrons to either an external circuit or a water-splitting catalyst. The PV application of TaOx is demonstrated by a proof-of-concept device having a conversion efficiency of 19.1%. In addition, the PEC application is demonstrated by a photon-to-current efficiency (with additional applied bias) of 7.7%. These results represent a 2% and 3.8% absolute enhancement over control devices without a TaOx interlayer, respectively. The methods presented in this Letter are not limited to c-Si based devices and can be viewed as a more general approach to the interface engineering of optoelectronic and photoelectrochemical applications.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
ISSN:	2380-8195
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	24 January 2018
Date of Acceptance:	8 December 2017
Last Modified:	12 Nov 2023 19:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/108419

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