Light Harvesting and Enhanced Performance of Si Quantum Dot/Si Nanowire Heterojunction Solar Cells

Si nanowires (Si NWs) structures with good antireflection and enhanced optical‐absorption properties are used to fabricate Si quantum dots/Si NWs heterojunction solar cells. The Si NWs prepared by the metal‐assisted chemical‐etching technique exhibit a very low reflection in a wide spectral range (300–1200 nm). Correspondingly, the optical absorption reaches as high as 88.9% by weighting AM1.5G solar spectrum. Both the short current density and open current voltage are improved compared to the reference flat cell. However, the photovoltaic properties are degraded by varying the Si NWs with long etching time, possibly due to the increased etching‐induced surface states. The optimal Si NWs lead to the best cell with the power conversion efficiency of 11.3%.