Varying Surface Chemistries for p-Doped and n-Doped Silicon Nanocrystals and Impact on Photovoltaic Devices

Tamilselvan Velusamy; Somak Mitra; Manuel Macias-Montero; Vladimir Svrcek; Davide Mariotti

doi:10.1021/acsami.5b06577

Varying Surface Chemistries for p-Doped and n-Doped Silicon Nanocrystals and Impact on Photovoltaic Devices

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2015 Dec 30;7(51):28207-14. doi: 10.1021/acsami.5b06577. Epub 2015 Dec 16.

Authors

Tamilselvan Velusamy¹, Somak Mitra¹, Manuel Macias-Montero¹, Vladimir Svrcek², Davide Mariotti¹

Affiliations

¹ Nanotechnology & Integrated Bio-Engineering Centre (NIBEC), Ulster University , Shore Road, Jordanstown BT37 0QB, U.K.
² Research Center for Photovoltaics, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) , Central 2, Umezono 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305-8568, Japan.

PMID: 26624237
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b06577

Abstract

Doping of quantum confined nanocrystals offers unique opportunities to control the bandgap and the Fermi energy level. In this contribution, boron-doped (p-doped) and phosphorus-doped (n-doped) quantum confined silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) are surface-engineered in ethanol by an atmospheric pressure radio frequency microplasma. We reveal that surface chemistries induced on the nanocrystals strongly depend on the type of dopants and result in considerable diverse optoelectronic properties (e.g., photoluminescence quantum yield is enhanced more than 6 times for n-type SiNCs). Changes in the position of the SiNCs Fermi levels are also studied and implications for photovoltaic application are discussed.

Keywords: Fermi level; PV device; p/n-SiNCs; quantum yield; surface chemistry; surface engineering.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't