Schottky solar cells based on graphene nanoribbon/multiple silicon nanowires junctions

We report the construction of Schottky solar cells based on graphene nanoribbon/multiple silicon nanowires (SiNWs) junctions. Only a few (similar to 10) SiNWs were involved to miniaturize the solar cell for nanoscale power source applications. It was found that doping level of the SiNWs played an important role in determining the device performance. By increasing the doping level, solar cell with open circuit voltage of 0.59V and energy conversion efficiency of 1.47% were achieved under AM 1.5G illumination. The large effective junction area of the radial Schottky junction was responsible for the high device performance. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4711205]