Enhancement of Light Absorption in Silicon Nanowire Photovoltaic Devices with Dielectric and Metallic Grating Structures

We report the enhancement of light absorption in Si nanowire photovoltaic devices with one-dimensional dielectric or metallic gratings that are fabricated by a damage-free, precisely aligning, polymer-assisted transfer method. Incorporation of a Si3N4 grating with a Si nanowire effectively enhances the photocurrents for transverse-electric polarized light. The wavelength at which a maximum photo current is generated is readily tuned by adjusting the grating pitch. Moreover, the electrical properties of the nanowire devices are preserved before and after transferring the Si3N4 gratings onto Si nanowires, ensuring that the quality of pristine nanowires is not degraded during the transfer. Furthermore, we demonstrate Si nanowire photovoltaic devices with Ag gratings using the same transfer method. Measurements on the fabricated devices reveal approximately 27.1% enhancement in light absorption compared to that of the same devices without the Ag gratings -without any degradation of electrical properties. We believe that our polymer-assisted transfer method is not limited to the fabrication of grating incorporated nanowire photovoltaic devices but can also be generically applied for the implementation of complex nanoscale structures toward the development of multifunctional optoelectronic devices.