Number of graphene layers as a modulator of the open-circuit voltage of graphene-based solar cell

Impressive optical properties of graphene have been attracting the interest of researchers, and, recently, the photovoltaic effects of a heterojunction structure embedded with few layer graphene (FLG) have been demonstrated. Here, we show the direct dependence of open-circuit voltage (V-oc) on numbers of graphene layers. After unavoidably adsorbed contaminants were removed from the FLGs, by means of in situ annealing, prepared by layer-by-layer transfer of the chemically grown graphene layer, the work functions of FLGs showed a sequential increase as the graphene layers increase, despite of random interlayer-stacking, resulting in the modulation of photovoltaic behaviors of FLGs/Si interfaces. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3464319]