Extremely thin absorber solar cells based on nanostructured semiconductors

Abstract

Extremely thin absorber (eta) solar cells aim to combine the advantages of using very thin, easily and cheaply produced absorber layers on nanostructured substrates with the stability of all-solid-state solar cells using inorganic absorber layers. The concept of using nanostructured substrates originated from the dye-sensitised solar cell, where having a very high surface area allows the use of very thin layers of dye while still absorbing sufficient sunlight. However, both the dye and liquid electrolyte used in these devices demonstrated poor stability, and efforts were made to replace them with very thin inorganic absorber layers and solid state hole collectors respectively. The combination of these concepts – a nanostructured substrate coated with a very thin inorganic absorber and completed with a solid state hole collector – is known as an eta solar cell. This review summarises the development of both the inorganic absorbers and solid state hole collectors in porous TiO₂ and ZnO nanorod based cells, focusing on the material properties and growth/deposition methods. Future possibilities for eta solar cells are discussed, including utilisation of a wider range of materials, synthesis methods and novel materials such as quantum dots to produce tuned band gap and multijunction solar cells.