Issue 6, 2013
From the journal:

Energy & Environmental Science

Optical, electrical, and solar energy-conversion properties of gallium arsenide nanowire-array photoanodes†

Shu Hu,ad   Chun-Yung Chi,‡b   Katherine T. Fountaine,‡ad   Maoqing Yao,‡b   Harry A. Atwater,‡*cd   P. Daniel Dapkus,‡*b   Nathan S. Lewis‡*ad  and  Chongwu Zhou‡b  

* Corresponding authors

a Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, 210 Noyes Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
E-mail: nslewis@caltech.edu

b Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

c Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

d Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA, USA

Abstract

Periodic arrays of n-GaAs nanowires have been grown by selective-area metal–organic chemical-vapor deposition on Si and GaAs substrates. The optical absorption characteristics of the nanowire-arrays were investigated experimentally and theoretically, and the photoelectrochemical energy-conversion properties of GaAs nanowire arrays were evaluated in contact with one-electron, reversible, redox species in non-aqueous solvents. The radial semiconductor/liquid junction in the nanowires produced near-unity external carrier-collection efficiencies for nanowire-array photoanodes in contact with non-aqueous electrolytes. These anodes exhibited overall inherent photoelectrode energy-conversion efficiencies of ∼8.1% under 100 mW cm−2 simulated Air Mass 1.5 illumination, with open-circuit photovoltages of 590 ± 15 mV and short-circuit current densities of 24.6 ± 2.0 mA cm−2. The high optical absorption, and minimal reflection, at both normal and off-normal incidence of the GaAs nanowire arrays that occupy <5% of the fractional area of the electrode can be attributed to efficient incoupling into radial nanowire guided and leaky waveguide modes.

Graphical abstract: Optical, electrical, and solar energy-conversion properties of gallium arsenide nanowire-array photoanodes

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C3EE40243F
Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Jan 2013
Accepted
14 Mar 2013
First published
17 Apr 2013

Energy Environ. Sci., 2013,6, 1879-1890

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Optical, electrical, and solar energy-conversion properties of gallium arsenide nanowire-array photoanodes

S. Hu, C. Chi, K. T. Fountaine, M. Yao, H. A. Atwater, P. D. Dapkus, N. S. Lewis and C. Zhou, Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, 6, 1879 DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40243F

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