Tantalum Oxide Electron-Selective Heterocontacts for Silicon Photovoltaics and Photoelectrochemical Water Reduction

Yimao Wan*, Siva Krishna Karuturi, Christian Samundsett, James Bullock, Mark Hettick, Di Yan, Jun Peng, Parvathala Reddy Narangari, Sudha Mokkapati, Hark Hoe Tan, Chennupati Jagadish, Ali Javey, Andres Cuevas

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    144 Citations (Scopus)

    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.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)125-131
    Number of pages7
    JournalACS Energy Letters
    Volume3
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 12 Jan 2018

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