optical transmission up to 90% in the visible light region

MOCVD Growth of MgZnO and a low sheet resistance of ~ 40Ω/square. MgxZn1-xO

Nanotips Used for Hybrid
Polymer Solar Cells
Ziqing Duan1, Aurelien Du Pasquier2, Jian Zhong1,
Yicheng Lu1*
1
Dept.of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers
University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
2 from ~100 mV with Mg0.04Zn0.96O to ~180 mV with
Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, Rutgers
University, 671 Highway 1, North Brunswick, NJ 08902,
USA
*e-mail: ylu@rci.rutgers.edu
ZnO can be alloyed with MgO to form MgxZn1-
xO, tuning the direct band gap energy from 3.3 to 4.0 eV
[1, 2]. Growth of 1-D wurtzite MgxZn1-xO nanotips is
challenging than that of the films because the solid
solubility limit of MgO in ZnO is only ~4% and the
growth of MgxZn1-xO nanotips is nearly under the thermal
equilibrium. Recent study [3] shows that Mg
incorporation into MgxZn1-xO, tunes the band offset in
poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)-MgZnO hybrid solar
cells, resulting in an enhanced open circuit voltage VOC.
In this work, the MgxZn1-xO nanotips are grown
nanotips grown on the GZO/glass substrates show similar
morphology to that on Si substrates. The P3HT is
deposited onto MgxZn1-xO nanotips by spin coating. The
optical bandgap values from UV-Vis absorption spectra
of the solar cells made with ZnO, Mg0.04Zn0.96O and
Mg0.05Zn0.95O are 3.42, 3.52 and 3.60 eV, respectively.
The open-circuit voltage VOC of the solar cells increases
Mg0.05Zn0.95O. The simulated and measured VOC values
for solar cells made on GZO/glass substrates as function
of Mg contents are found to be in good agreement.
In summary, we have grown single crystalline
MgxZn1-xO nanotips on various substrates using MOCVD.
It is found that a high temperature grown ZnO thin buffer
layer is critical for growth of MgxZn1-xO nanotips on Si
and glass substrates. The hybrid polymer solar cells using
P3HT combined with MgxZn1-xO nanotips are grown on
GZO/glass substrates. The hybrid solar cells show higher
open circuit voltage when increasing the Mg composition
in MgxZn1-xO nanotips.
100 ZnO

on various substrates, including Si, glass, and Ga-doped Mg0.03Zn0.97O

Mg0.05Zn0.95O

ZnO (GZO) coated glass. For MOCVD growth of 80

Mg0.07Zn0.93O
Mg0.03Zn0.97O
MgxZn1-xO, diethylzinc (DEZn) and
bismethylcyclopentadienyl magnesium (MCp2Mg) are 60
used as Zn and Mg precursors, respectively. The growth
T%

parameters, including Zn/O precursors flow rate ratio,

40
growth temperature, and chamber pressure are optimized.
The structural and optical properties of MgxZn1-xO
20
nanotips are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD),
optical transmission, and photoluminescence. Field
emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) is used 0
300 400 500 600
Wavelength (nm)
to check the surface morphology of nanotips. Finally, a
novel 3-D photoelectrode structure, which consists of a Figure 1 Transmission spectra of MgxZn1-xO (0≤x≤0.1)
Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) film and an array of single nanotips. The inset picture shows a FESEM image of
crystalline MgxZn1-xO (0≤x≤0.10) nanotips is used to Mg0.07Zn0.93O nanotips grown on Si substrates.
make the hybrid P3HT-MgxZn1-xO solar cells.
It is found that the optimum temperature for
growth of MgxZn1-xO nanotips is around 520oC. At low
growth temperature (≤ 500oC) or at high temperature (≥ 45000
(0002)
550oC), the significant degradation in optical transmission
spectra of MgxZn1-xO nanotips is observed. The chamber
pressure is another sensitive factor, which impacts the Mg 30000
incorporation. A high chamber pressure (~60 torr) leads to
Intensity

the maximum of 10% Mg incorporating into MgxZn1-xO

nanotips. Figure 1 shows the transmission spectra of
15000
MgxZn1-xO nanotips with different Mg composition, x
(0≤x≤0.1) grown at an optimized chamber pressure of ~
60 torr. (0004)
It is found that the high temperature grown ZnO 0
30 40 50 60 70 80
thin buffer plays a critical role as the seed layer to make o
2-Theta ( )
wurtzite MgxZn1-xO nanotips grown along the [0001]
direction on Si and glass substrates. A thin (~10nm) ZnO Figure 2 The X-ray diffraction pattern of Mg0.07Zn0.93O
buffer layer is initially grown at ~520oC before MgxZn1- nanotips grown on glass substrates
xO nanotips growth. The inset of figure 1 shows a FESEM
image of Mg0.07Zn0.93O nanotips grown on Si substrates Reference:
with the ZnO buffer. The XRD measurements (Fig.2) [1] A. Ohtomo, M. Kawasaki, T. Koida, K. Masubuchi,
confirm that the MgxZn1-xO nanotips grown with a thin H. Koinuma, Y. Sakurai, Y. Yoshida, T. Yasuda, Y.
ZnO buffer on Si substrates have the crystal orientation Segawa, Applied Physics Letters, 72, 2466 (1998)
along [0001] direction. [2] S. Muthukumar, J. Zhong, Y. Chen, Y. Lu, T. Siegrist,
The hybrid solar cells are built on the GZO/glass Applied Physics Letters, 82, 742 (2003)
substrates. The GZO films are deposited on the glass [3] D. C. Olson, S. E. Shaheen, M. S. White, W. J.
substrates at a temperature of ~380oC. The GZO film, Mitchell, M. F. A. M. van Hest, R. T. Collins, D. S.
acting as the electrode and optical window, has high Ginley, Advanced Functional Materials, 17, 264 (2007)