The geometry of nanowire solar cells provides many potential advantages compared to planar solar cells, such as reduced reflection, built-in light concentration due to absorption resonances, improved band gap tuning for multi-junction devices and an increased defect tolerance. Moreover, the use of nanowires reduces the quantity of material necessary to approach the limits of light to electric power conversion efficiency, allowing for substantial cost reductions if they are grown on a cheap substrate. However, it is far from straightforward to achieve optimum design of bottom up grown nanowire solar cells, as it requires control and an in-depth understanding of complex growth kinetics controlling the nanowire crystal formation and dopant incorporation. The growth mechanisms and photovoltaic properties of III-V nanowires and in particular GaAs nanowires grown on Silicon substrates will be discussed.

Supervisor:Prof. Jesper Nygård

Committee:

Prof. Vladimir G. Dubrovskii, Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute

Prof. Kimberly D. Thelander, Lund University


Prof. Bjarne Andresen, University of Copenhagen (chairman)